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tv   Election Night  CSPAN  November 6, 2012 8:00pm-2:00am EST

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historian. >> the associated press calls indiana, kentucky, south carolina, and -- for romney and vermont for obama. we will focus on the more competitive senate races and next up we join the political coverage from politico, here on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]
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>> give up on the fight to make sure the middle class is growing. >> welcome to politico live. a special wecome tlcome to c-sp, when we began with pawlenty's announcement on youtube 580 days ago. i am joined by john harris, mike aaron, karen -- politico is the better place for it. polls closing in most states on the east coast. some pivotal states closed. virginia, ohio, and pennsylvania -- it will be a late night.
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it couldn't be a bigger night in politics. it was 50-50 500 days ago and ended as a 50-50 race. and the exit polling shows it is 50-50. the senate, democrats control -- it doesn't look like the republicans will take control. democrats think they can get seats. the republicans with a 25 seats in the house as a majority, nobody thinks they will lose that. we will watch the races that tell us the most about politics. everyone thinks the popular vote is close to 50-50. >> that's right. we see in the states that have
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closed, there are a couple of calls. obama doing great in the northeast. mitt romney, doing well in the south. states projected for obama, vermont, maine. going out on a limb. and for romney, he has georgia, indiana, south carolina, west virginia. the ones we care about, virginia and ohio. they feel ok about florida and virginia. but a sign of trouble. jonathan martin is hearing the margins for him in chesterfield county just outside of richmond, where he is doing well, it is not good enough. if he's losing there, it's a sign of trouble in the state. in ohio, romney is worried about
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the midwest. wisconsin, and ohio, real nervousness. in the obama war room, confidence. exit polls looked good for john kerry. there are jokes about president kerry. but their models are coming in. the vote is coming in how they expected. >> one state declared is indiana, which obama won and it is called for romney. it shows the map is smaller this time, the map is smaller. some of the exit polling looks good, some does not, with what people think of health care and the role of government.
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people ask me, who should i vote for? what will they do? i have no clue. none of the candidates talked about what they'll do. it goes with what john wrote, about how small the campaign is in what is a huge moment. when you think of what is happening with our debt. trillion-dollar deficits but it feels small. >> obama and romney would say this is the most consequential election of our lifetime. there are some legitimate reasons to think this election could have long-term effects. precisely because there are big decisions and they come with different views.
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it's a big election in that sense and the money spent. in many particulars it is a small election without big ideas or arguments or candidates. last time, obama ran as a historic figure. now he's tried to run as the opposite. i am doing the best i can and am better than this guy. many arguments rage on twitter and on cable tv. that are fundamentally distractions. the gaffe de jour is an uproar with nothing to do with the long-term choices. >> there is an election party through the evening.
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we want to bring viewers in. you can email me at politico.com. i am doing my job. carrie,you've been a student of the president for years. and what he is trying to accomplish. have you been surprised he's made the campaign so small and narrow. it is narrow and nasty. but was on materity leave was an observer -- it would strike me when he talked about the economy. talking about teachers and manufacturing. it felt like, where is the big idea. >> i remember it. it was such a big story.
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you wrote the story, he can't finish the sentence, elect me and i'll do x. >> i think it was in january. >> here we are, and he still never got a crisp answer to that question. >> i think it is almost the way -- how campaigns are run now and politics is. you can't say anything without it becoming something. think of what happens with a comprehensive plan that breaks ground and is new. i think everyone is so afraid of saying something you can't game out. >> for people tuning in trying to find out how obama would
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govern, what would he say if that wasn't true? if he could say whatever is on his mind. what would he say? what big issues would he talk about? >> i think he'd say -- on the fiscal cliff, he would be clear about what needs to be done. he was clear in 2011 but he hasn't talked since then. we have to raise the medicare age. we have to raise taxes. on entitlements, we have to have real problems -- and they aren't there to see him cut medicare. >> the first order of business is the unfinished business of his first term.
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2011 was about -- if he wins a second term, he will face a weakened republican party. he can turn to the things he wants to do. >> we will update the road to 270. a number of states called in the south. alabama, georgia, indiana which obama won last time. kentucky, mississippi, south carolina -- which a few cycles ago, it was a swing state. the map is smaller. kentucky, and in dc -- delaware, illinois, and his home state -- the last few presidents were in the white house on election night. he's in illinois.
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rhode island, maine, vermont. >> we will give you one suggestion. to make it easier to follow, grab a computer and we have these maps on politico.com where you can look at each state, live, as the results are reported. it goes into orur system. you can see the same data we are. it is a great equalizer evening. you look at the same information we are. we can tell you the body l anguage and -- i will tell you, the vast majority of email from republicans, they are not as confident as the traffic we get from the obama folks. he has to win so many states that are coin tosses.
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and they have to break his -- >> he has to win virginia. it is the cnaaranary in the coal mine. he needs to do well there. >> ohio, wisconsin -- it is predicated on doing well in florida and virginia. two counties to watch. prince william county, and louden county. barack obama won them in 2008. the first republican to win it, ever. if he holds on, that is trouble for romney. that is the place, he has to take those back. >> that segues into a question. if you are watching on c-span
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you can email me directly. craig manson asks, do third party candidates effect this? virgil goode, a former democratic congressman turned into an independent candidate, and there was concern he could pull a point from romney. is there a chance they could have an effect? >> if we get into a florida situation, an infinite number of things can be said. i don't think there's any place a third party candidate has influenced the election. >> an early call on a senate race in florida, bill nelson has won there.
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connie mack was threatening him. >> florida was a state republicans felt good about. he has governored from the center. they got connie mack, and thought they had the funding. that is a state that didn't get that competitive. one of the big stories out of the election, who is to blame for the recruitment of candidates and the strategy to win the senate. 2010, 2012, the map favored republicans and they didn't broker the primary. ending up with less electable candidates. as we know in divided government, control by a seat matters profoundly.
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>> the establishment can't control their party. and once more, the yare afraid of the party. >> republicans tried to favor charlie crist and marco rubio -- they got a lot of criticism. intervene and dr ew out the process and gave the monimation for less competitive candidates. indiana, missouri with todd akin. he may hand a winnable seat to clair mccaskill. and a tough race in what should be a republican seat. >> this may be a data point as to why his argument on taxes is
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a mandate for him. it is a year for the republicans to take over, they didn't. they could have lost the m ajority but they are holding it. this is a debate about the big issues. the democrats won. >> facing the republican party with profound debates at the congressional level. >> keep the emails coming. a hello from the netherlands. it is amazing how many people are on politico. the reason they haven't made promises is that people are so disillusioned that they succumb to the partisanship.
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>> we think both candidates, as john wrote, are too small for their moment in the thinking. people are thirsty for big ideas. when people started talking about entitlement reform, the numbers went up. people are open to ideas such as changing medicare. they weren't open to that years ago. >> this is a puzzle about how he played his cards. he picked paul ryan, who has big ideas -- and this appetite -- it can be sated. he will get a lot of cred from the voters pavillion. instead you get the worst of both worlds. you get whatever criticism there
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was. and they use him like tim pawlenty. aey haven't talked about single tough choice. >> for the c-span audience, one question from earlier -- there are two big questions. i am not convinced. one question, why did mitt romney not pivot to the center, as he did in denver in the debate, why didn't he do that in april. that was the time to make the shift. the obama team forecast their strategy. >> the reason was -- you wrote brilliantly about it. until the convention, the campaign they ran was not good
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until the convention. they wasted money in not buying adds earlier. he could have moved to the middle. the republicans didn't think they could win and would have taken any transition. and an email from northern chile -- what impact will latino voters have? you bring a lot about immigration reform. >> new mexico wasn't in play. it went automatically into the obama column. it is clear in nevada and colorado. nevada is a pathway to 270 without ohio. i think the post-mortem on this is that -- if the republicans don't win, a look a thow they
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dealt with the latino vote and the language they used and the perception that is created. the latino vote is one of the pillars of the obama strategy. and a big turnout like the president said -- this is a reason why he wins. he was playing the analyst and acts like he doesn't do it publically. >> the best visual we've seen about the changing face of american politics -- the percentage of the vote white voters make up. it is down 3-4 points each election adn this will continue a long time.
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it was a reality they could blow off but they can't win without improving those numbers. >> you saw rubio try to do that -- >> and -- it was such a moment. really. and if we see, if republicans are serious about that, they will get serious about immigration reform. >> i will make a prediction if romney doesn't win. this is the last time we see a major party ticket with two white men on it. it will be almost automatic you have some rainbow, with gender
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balance or some sort of ethnic bounce. this is the last time you see a romney-ryan complexion. one thing about this -- i do buy the karl rove rap, if they get past immigration issue -- the hispanic vote would be receptive to appeals on business and economic issues and on social issues. >> all good things must come to an end. you're headed back, harris -- to join us. we will pop into the politico newsroom to talk about what we're working on. how we cover this as a news institution. we work with the same data you are. we are watching the night unfold
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with you. we have the senate race in ohio and virginia and pennsylvania. and the house races that matter. you probably want more of the nitty-gritty. that is why we're here. we have john allen -- >> and you cover capital hill. -- capitol hill. i know you and i have exchanged emails about polling data. is there a sign from the regions so far that give us an indication of where this may unfold? >> the one place we are getting information is virginia. the rural counties were romney needed to jack up the votes, he is doing better than mccain but not as well.
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culpeper county -- 60-38. mccain won 51-45. but that only takes out 5,000 votes. we haven't heard from alexandria, loudoun and i just lost my train of thought. prince williams. augusta. and there is a bigger edge than last time. 69-30 for mccain. pennsylvania -- and 62-38, it was the opposite in 2008. thees these are small vote margins. >> and the scene here, a bit, as we build the blocks of the romney map. taking the candidates to 270.
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we can't overemphasize the importance of virginia. ohio and wisconsin had more coverage. the assumption was that romney would carry florida and virginia. if he struggles in virginia, ohio can be a moot point. it is only essential with virginia and florida in his back pocket. >> it is going to be a long time. and that is why we think it will be a late night. let's look at the maps and see how the states unfold. we use the associated press. if a network calls it -- but we will be cautious in how trustworthy the calls will be.
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there are states we'll see, and the polls close in pennsylvania. a state that become interesting that wasn't earlier. minnesota, michigan, and penn sylvania. it wasn't a head fake. they were states with high white populations and the numbers were better for romney. there's a reason bill clinton ran to pennsylvania. >> the report on politics in pennsylvania, romney came out in the denver debate had been in april, pennsylvania would have been in play longer. a moderate romney could have done well. and tonight, watching the
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returns come in, pennsylvania is a place were the rural parts report earlier and people see the returns come in and the ythiny think one candidate willn then philadelphia puts someone over the top. do wellerate romney would in the philadelphia suburbs. they recognize that romney, last month -- >> people are still voting. the campaign is flush out with the voters. there is an obama video on twitter, where he's trying to convince his people to go vote. go vote, it's gametime. we don't get another chance tomorrow.
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>> and michelle obama's name -- make sure you vote. get people out to the polls. this is literally going down to the wire. >> further complicating things. in new jersey, they extended the voting deadline and you can vote online because of the storm damage. , wet of the votes ,w won't know when they are tallied. new jersey is not competitive. if it is close -- there may be a recount or legal challenges. i worry about a 50-50 country. people are really empassioned about the election.
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they may not see specificity in the next four years but i wonder, if it is close, people will get fired up. >> one side or the other will argue about legitimacy. it.oth sides -- you've seen and for seaside viewers -- there is the debate about if all the public polls are wrong, the think obama will win, the polls look better for him than mitt romney. a lot of conservatives say the polls are manipulated. i tried to find where the preponderance of the polls were wrong.
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this is not mean that you cannot have this unexplained and undetectable surge among the voters, with conservative and rural areas, where mitt romney is doing well. but it defies everything that we know about polling. >> the whole industry. that is what republicans were so much more nervous than democrats. this was portrayed as a jumble and all of these polls, they are taken in different ways in different places at different times and they all showed something similar, while i learned covering the 2004 campaign, jim was with john kerry and i was with president bush from the white house.
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everything was tied and they said it was in the margin of error. every single one was for president obama. any single poll may be wrong, but in the past, everything was not wrong. >> engine never know. i was covering john kerry and if he had become the president i would write about what his presidency would look like. everything that we were hearing was the president would win. and i got a call from rural ohio, saying, we did not -- we see a surge that we did not anticipate. >> and that can happen tonight. we don't really know. and that is the narrowness and the mystery tonight. it is 49%, and one was of
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49.57, 49.53. this is close. >> i am wondering if we will see something that will be completely under water and my job will be dependent on today. with the obama white house. and tomorrow is a different day if mitt romney wins. and the news gathering, this is something completely different. and they wrapped their heads around, -- >> we have some breaking news there. chris murphy defeated linda mcmahon in connecticut. this gives the democrats an official democrat after having the individual independent
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leading democrat -- >> linda mcmahon ran a much better campaign and it was virtually tied. but he broke loose at the end and this was never really part of the equation of winning back the majority. but almost every republican i talked to says that there is no real chance of winning back the senate tonight. this just does not play into their favor. 33 senate seats are up tonight. 23 of those are held by democrats. this is what you call a mathematical advantage. republicans blew the mathematical advantage. in divided government and the size of these majorities, this matter is the most. >> another state in the south,
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tennessee -- and now in chicago obama is celebraating election night. glenn, what do you hear from the prrersident's advisors? >> they have been steady all day.
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if this is just kindif this is i think this is -- about whether or not they have cayahoga county in ohio. one of the things where -- if obama does win, it will have to come back and -- you just have -- the exit polls and reduce the vote in ohio. ohio moved from tossup to leans obama. and i am speaking with folks in virginia. and the richmond area. and -- out there -- in some -- they are very nervous. they are apprehensive about what they say about ohio. they think virginia is a jump ball with the lines at the voting booth. >> we talk to glenn rush again. to set the stage, 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency. they will be here until 11:00. we will be on c-span 1 and 2 until the end. and we will be on politico.com. and what this means for
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governing. we come back to this, time and time again. when we know a victor, the next set of stories is a lame duck congress. a lame duck congress, congress has to govern between the election and when the next president is sworn in. lots of stuff expires. the payroll tax cut, the bush tax cuts, which every single one of you -- will expire. the cuts will kick in. those things have to be dealt with. there is not a lot of time to celebrate. >> of thanksgiving is two weeks from thursday. i want this to happen. there is not that much time
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between now and the end of the year. we have been talking about this for a year and a half. congress has been looking over taxes and the deficits. they have not succeeded in getting a solution. here we are, seven weeks before the end of the year and obviously, something has to happen. even if the president does when, in the next seven weeks this will have to carry into the next year. >> a couple of calls are coming in. the senate race in maine is going to angus king. he said that he will caucus with the democrats, and that is a place where the republicans
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thought would be ok. and georgia, one of the states that the obama people, they toyed with making this a target state because of a lot of hispanic residents, and a cataclysmic development, real worry about virginia in the romney war room. his votes in virginia are not coming in how they should. the state is too close to call. had tothe romney people didn't sweat about. this is abig development we didn't expect. >> and what we hear from the romney campaign, if you look at
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the vote totals, and go to politico.com. you can look at the different counties. you need to pay attention to rural counties. that is where he has to drive up the vote totals. the bulk of the vote in virginia comes from northern virginia, over the river behind us.e . everyone expects obama will win around dc decisively. if the numbers are as bad -- they are not as good as they need to be. >> a lot to say -- those counties -- >> more than that one to feel he has a cushion going into the counties around washington.
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>> and the more suburban -- obama will get a big a big scor. >> we haven't seen the vote tallies in virginia. and joining us on set is the arcitect -- >> call me "winner" house races? your job was to protect the majority or grow this. is it possible the republicans may net seats? >> we will get them in non- traditional areas. we will get them because we fought hard. this means you get to do a lot of things you wouldn't normally
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do. one goal of mine, four years ago, was to make sure we were a national party with a national message, to sell thit that way. john boehner backed it up and eric cantor with a great job. >> early numbers from ohio and virginia, you may be one of the few happy republicans in tonigh. >> how do you feel about the washington. >> we put a lot of work into this. the rcc is about winning. cantor and boehner were with us -- winning back twice. you have to prove you can do it. >> for those watching, the congressman runs the campaign committee. controls the money that is spent -- what is one district you will win tonight that they thought you wouldn't win? hwo do you go about winning the
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right candidate and beating an incumbent? >> it is a xomplex issue with a number of variables. redistricting -- took the steam out of us. if you look at what we had to do, in north carolina, a development of races against incumbents that would run. we had to show what we stood isa number of variables. redistricting -- for was bette rthan what their member of congress stood for. the obamacare vote -- we had 23 votes where a member could reject certain parts of it. >> exit polls are about even -- and they thought obamacare could expand.
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what makes you think the health care vote is the best out ther e? >> you have to tell the voter the story. we will lose 800,000 jobs that cost $3,000 billion over six years. and it puts small businesses in an uncertain mode. we effectively sold those concepts across the country. we learned to defend ourselves and go on offense. that is what our candidates were good at. and we had the ability to
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collect more money that was out there. >> what's your next chapter? a successful run in the last election, a hosue majority. holding the house majority, maybe picking up or losing a few is good -- >> i will sleep in for a few days. i have always believed in winning. eric cantor and jon boehner are doing a good job. i intend to be in the thick of it so we stay on offense. i want to help who takes over the rcc. greg -- who has been my deputy, i am available to help. >> do you want to be rules
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chairman? >> i am not the least bit worried about a thing except winning. this has a lot to do with deputy, timing. a lot of people are on the board to get across. we will worry about this tomorrow. >> how many suits do you think you will lose or win? net democrats last time -- if we hold our own, we've done a great job. netting 5-7. >> if you do that, you can have more than the rules committee. >> one last question -- one race is in rochester. louise slaughter may or may not -- i think you want to be the chairman. is that a race you'll win?
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>> maggie brooks is awesome and louise slaughter and i get along well. the chairman of that committee have a lot of tough nights. i promise you, the way john boehner has it run is when we allow feedback from every member. we have to continue the process where every member is a professional. >> no prediction of a maggie brooks -- >> john boehner will be the speaker -- >> and politico -- we need some folding chairs on the republican side. >> we want our half of the floor, fill it up, and have folding chairs and that is a mission statement. we will stick to it.
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>> thank you very much. there is no doubt republicans have a chance and if they pick up any seats -- you can have a race where barack obama could win but republicans net seats. this is a manifestation of a polarized country. >> we could have the same government in january we have now. ivided -- thete devided - same vipers and pythons that were there before. they will deal with the same issues, the same obstructionism
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that has defined congress. >> a state chairman who was on the road -- sat down with john boehner. in your interview with the speaker, he talked in emphatic terms he is not in a deal-making mood. and house republicans will have the mandate. >> if the president wins, he will have a mandate and house republicans will. obama's gambit -- raising taxes over $250,000. both parties say the election is telling them they are right. the way they governed through the last three or four years is
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right. they start the staredown and the fact john boehner is talking about obama with the winning ren is telling to operatives. >> jake is in the politico newsroom. 10 or 15 through the country. some with romney or obama, and folks in the swing states of ohio and florida. in case there is voting problems. what are you seeing in the exit polls and the votes coming in? >> mike pence, a member of congress running for governor in indiana is ahead by a small margin. he's expected to pull it out but that caught our eye.
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house races -- as mr. sessions told you, republicans are doing well. they defeated an incumbent, andy barr defeated ben champion. the first incumbent to lose of the night. john boehner echoed what sessions said. they never thought they needed to lose seats. >> jake, you know, you talked about the kentucky seat. we do want to talk about congress. we have politico live and politico.com. one of the biggest changes has been starting in 2010, it was an obliteration of the southern
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conservative democrat. from 55 blue dog democrats to half that i nthe lasn the last election. you could end up with a democratic caucus with 12-14 blue dogs. you will have a more polarized congress, and few moderate republicans win tonight. even in the seats congressman sessions feels good about. if you don't get work, you can get more polarized. >> there is kind of a nopposite n opposite phenomenon. john barrow in savannah is going to win. it undermines the point a little bit. he ran a specific race, away from pelosi and obama.
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people pointed out this caucus is in a state of disarray. nancy pelosi will lose two cycles in a row. the party has no direction. the hosue republicans are conservative but are rowing to the right. democrats are not in the same position. the blue dogs and moderates don't exist and have benen unable to get something going. >> they thought the republicans may gain a seat in the hosue. what is the practical getting back to that? >> the immediate thing is a status quo election. this is the worst-case scenario.
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you ahve to deal with tax rates, defense cuts. cutting spending. everything with a congress, a washington that has changed almost not at all. democrats may gain a seat in the senate. if mitt romney loses, a lot of republicans will think they need to be more conservative. >> a grand bargain is less likely? >> this is a burning question. if mitt romney loses, which a lot of republicans expected --
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if john boehner thinks they need to be practical and cut a deal, that will be huge. aides don't see this as an opti on, but a necessity. this would be huge for him. >> we will come back to you. you can hear the nois ae at the newseum, a history of the news media. it is gorgeous from the outside. and it gives you a history of the media to the advent of technology. we have probably 1,000 people behind us. voices, you can hear in the background. we will be on c-span all night.
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email me directly at politicolive at politico.com. we get tons of questions and i promise -- we will get to a lot of those emails, if you can. holy cow. we have bill barton on set. you -- you are an evil man. tell people what you do. you run a super pac. >> we tell the american people about who mitt romney is and what he wants to do. >> as you would say -- how much in the last month/ >? >> about $30 million. >> telling people the truth about who mitt romney is. >> how much ahvhave you raised,
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total? >> about $80 million. i'm from buffalo. that is real money. >> if you are not that familiar -- becasue of the supreme court ruling, people can give unlimited money and we see billions of dollars. you can become ground zero for people who want to get involved. if i were rich, why would i give you $500. >> for starters -- karl rove and the koch brothers explained they would have hundreds of millions they'd spend to beat the president. if you want the elction decided
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by them, ok. but if you are nervous about the ideology they support, you go into a group that has the president's back. two, it is a close election wehrhere everything matters. we talked about mit t romney, who he was. and his argument for why he should be president. let's talk about what this meant to the middle class workers who se lives were changed in a terrible way by mitt romney. >> some breaking news. extreme worry in the romney war room about virginia. virginia is a building block of any romney map. had to have florida and
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virginia, then you worry about ohio. the votes coming in from virginia -- county by county, on politico.com you can watch the numbers coming in -- that the virginia votes are well tracking the obama votes and the mccain votes in 2008. there is no way romney can win if that continues. you were in chicago at the obama campiagn headquarters. what do you hear? >> virginia actually looks good for the president. if he wins virginia -- this sis going to be an early night. the fact mitt romney never made a compelling case about the middle class held him up in virginia.
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and it is the reason he loses the election. >> you would be unsurprised to have mitt romney take virginia early. >> the polls are trending to virginia. the numbers were moving i nthe n the right direction. the presidentcannot -- virginiat of the numbers he needed. he needed ohio and he needed one. iowa or colorado. if he got virginia, let's start partying early. >> we have a famous republican -- we will bring you both into the conversation. it is 9:00 p.m. and will polls closing across the country. we have a batch of them closing in on a clock tower -- in the
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9:00 p.m. hour. we have some indications the polls and the numbers that have reported so far are not where the romney campaign needs them to be. if that holds true and it will [inaudible] to early to tell that. places like ohio and pennsylvania are too close to call. people think it will be many hours before we can sift through the individual county and have a call declared in any of those places. we have results that are too close to call including in virginia. we do not have --[inaudible] agreed republicans will hold control the house. we do not know of it will pick
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up seats but it is possible. >> we are being told that ohio is worried for the from the campaign. they are not hearing from their what they hope to. early -- an early sign of trouble. they were hoping for recount in ohio. if we start tonight with a recap we're in trouble. >> we will look at the sights and sounds of the campaign from our reporters that have been out on the trail since tim pawlenty announced he would be running . at it.ook [videotape] >> i am mitt romney. i believe in america, and i am running for president.
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>> corporations are people, my friends. >> our next president will face extraordinary challenges that will alter the destiny of america and the freedom of the world. >> instead he went on his own agenda. he should not be on the vineyard playing golf. >> i am proud and excited to endorse him. >> mitt romney is the man we need to lead america and we need him now. >> 10,000 bucks? a $10,000 bet? >> by the end of my first term we will have on employment at 6%. >> i changed my mind. >> wait until the obama health kitchen turns up the heat. >> kid rock. >> a great victory in arizona. >> we want to thank the people of illinois for their vote and for this extraordinary victory. >> in my opinion mitt romney is clearly that person. >> mitt romney is going to be our nominee.
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>> i support governor romney for president of the united states. >> marriage between people of the same gender. >> go ahead. >> the windows do not open. >> there are few things that were disconcerting. >> the next vice-president of the united states, paul ryan. >> today that time has turned to -- come to turn the page. >> it is not elegantly stated. let me put it that way. i will stop the subsidy to the pbs. >> the president spent the last week talking about saving big bird. >> please proceed. >> binders full of women. we need strong leadership. i would like to be that leader with your support. >> do you want four more years like the last four more years? do you want real change? >> welcome back to a rowdy
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newseum in virginia. we have 1000 people here for an election night party. a lot is happening even in that video. michigan, fox and abc has been called for barack obama. not a huge shock as people thought this was an obama state to win in michigan but it was one that late in the game republicans had hoped they could put in play to widen the math. places like ohio look worse. >> it is another for republicans. it is looking like a blue night. the senate, they are not having
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any pleasant surprises. on the presidential side, virginia and ohio, both looking problematic for republicans. the romney campaign sick with worry about virginia. a basic part of the math. so far, in rural and urban parts of virginia, the boat has come in very much -- vote has come in. mitt romney has to do better in all those places. it is starting to look like virginia might not be in the cards for mitt romney and after that, the math falls apart. >> the reason that matters -- [inaudible] it looks like 2008. we will finally break into the conversation.
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what we like to build excitement. what is -- what are you hearing from your fellow republicans? >> this is a great opportunity to win the presidency. parts.earing some extra you do not know what is going to happen when the final vote is cast. that is what we learned in 2004. i would be very careful about [inaudible] >> we are hearing what we are -- reporting what we're hearing from other republicans. that get beyond virginia, ohio. what are you hearing from your friends about where the math is unfolding? >> what you're hearing is what i am hearing. we're not sure.
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ford is working better than we thought. colorado is still looking good. my home state, it is hard to say. the earliest reports we heard is that lines were long in republican areas like wisconsin. short in places like madison. >> your the only person who can honestly answer this question. to what degree is that that opportunity or an effort to generate a momentum narrative or hail mary because they thought ohio was going down? >> i think it is the first year. doing it to try to change the momentum away from hurricane sandy is the way to generate excitement. the race is tightening. it did not deploy bill clinton
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if you thought you have [inaudible] >> we use the ap for official calls in states. we will get the updates for other networks. nbc is calling the massachusetts senate race for elisabeth warren -- elizabeth warren. that makes some math for republicans winning back the senate almost impossible. it will put a prominent liberal in the senate and take out a republican. one of the few moderate republicans left in the senate. that person will be ousted and join olympia snowe left because she was sick of the politics of washington. one of the things you need to keep in mind is you want to wins in these races. you will end up with a much more polarized senate. elizabeth warren -- is almost
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instantly a national figure. talk about the importance of this race. >> in terms of the moderates and the senate, what is going to happen in this election is you'll get totally elected in indiana, and you have a lot of friends for people like joe manchin. even though the republicans are more conservative. you have got some hard-core tea party guys that are going to be there. elizabeth warren is a force. she will be a power for democrats in the senate. let's get back to something that ron was talking about. trying to change a story line that mitt romney is winning.
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there is no numbers, the suggestion about the message. i think it was a mistake for the romney campaign. just sing your wedding is not enough to go out and get more support. it does not mean that you are winning. that is the mistake that romney -- closing by talking about winning. >> in the piece of in trading on the massachusetts race, it is going to be a good punch for lot of people who ran the mitt romney campaign. a lot of them were working on the scott brown campaign because the care for massachusetts. it was their job to elect brown. it was always fun to be a tough race. i think both sides, both ran related campaigns. sometimes you raise a lot of money and run good campaigns and get the politics right, you still lose. >> cromie's top of advisers and
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pollsters, working for him. there has been some second- guessing among republicans. there were -- you said there was -- did he draw his map too small to begin with? especially given some of that outside money that was available? >> m. e. say about elizabeth warren's win. massachusetts has more democratic registration and that was trending that way. let me say that elizabeth warner will be -- elizabeth warren will be a powerhouse. she is going to be of message -- off message and that will be a real opportunity for republicans next year. on the battleground map, it was a great idea for mitt romney to expand the map of pennsylvania and minnesota.
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they saw the polls -- could they have done it earlier? i am a political pundit. i am not in headquarters making those decisions. >> you can e-mail me alive. we're starting to get to your questions here. we want to thank c-span for partnering with politico. uighur lot about government and fear coverage and in an era where a bunch of noise is defined -- defining the campaign, getting the facts out there talking about the nuts and bolts of politics in campaigns matters. tonight, i do not know that we're getting a real clear picture that the public has come down decisively on one side or another. >> even then it does not look like if you look at the exit
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polls, it is hard to imagine that barack obama walked away with a convincing landslide win where he would have a some kind of mandate. we had an interview with john boehner yesterday and he said i will tell you who has a mandate. house republicans have a mandate. people thought we were going to lose seats, we might win seats. i do not think anybody is coming back to town regardless of the outcome. saying i am humbled. >> president bush lost. coming down to a couple of hundred votes. president obama came into this race, with the highest unemployment and the track was that 17% in october of last year. nobody gave him a chance. for him to come into this race and beat mitt romney, a guy who was a ceo, a corporate leader in
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the time of an economic election was a meaningful thing. president obama came out on top because he ran a strong campaign. people supported him, did a good job of supporting him and mitt romney was never able to make his case that he would be a guy who would fight for regular folks. we have a question from vas and mary kate who are in chevy chase -- beth and mary kate who are in chevy chase. what does mitt romney have to do to offset the losses in northern virginia? >> these are the exurban counties. mitt romney has been running for behind. the canary in the coal
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mine for the romney map. places that o brought the bombing -- barack obama carries. >> one of the stories that are popping up on politico.com. we have a story that mike huckabee has said that republicans made a huge mistake in not making a reach to minorities. he described minority outreach -- a rich to minorities as pathetic. that could be a wake-up call. >> he was echoing similar comments. we will put you on the spot.
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all white, mostly males does not cut it in american politics. how do as a party fix that? >> we have a changing electric out there. >> fox has called pennsylvania for barack obama. this is a disappointment for the romney folks but it is great to be here tonight. >> we have had michigan and pennsylvania called for barack obama. if you sit here much longer -- >> i appreciate that. >> on diversity, how does the republican party fix it? >> we have attained the electorate and republicans do need to reach out to minorities in of more effective way. no question about it. mitt romney had to get through
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the republican primary and that was a problem. >> he did a good job to reaching out to latino voters in the campaign? >> the results will speak for themselves. president obama did not exactly make the best friends with latino voters. what happened to immigration reform? >> you think mitt romney did a good job. >> i think that more work needs to be done. no question about it. you're killing me. >> it is interesting. we talked earlier about one of the most fascinating slides i have seen in the last couple months. the one that obama campaign uses when they talk about the electorate. it starts in 1992 until now. every election you lose three or 4% of the white vote.
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it is way too early. pennsylvania and michigan getting calls for obama. it is the fight for the future of the republican party. whether or not they can take the bush wing of the party that wants to do immigration reform. >> republicans madneed more womn candidates and they need to find a better way to talk about women's issues. >> we appreciate you joining. us. we will be here all night.
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the results are rolling in little by little. you are seeing the tapestry get filled in. some of the networks getting calls for barack obama. you have heard my calendar pouring through the night the republicans are worried about the results in rural virginia. the numbers are not coming in that republicans need to win a state like virginia. if that were to hold true could be an early night on the presidential side. nbc has called for elizabeth warren in massachusetts. that would be a huge pick up for democrats. it would make it virtually impossible for republicans to win back in the senate. it was a decent night on the east coast so far for the democratic party. too early to tell a lot of these results. you can e-mail us through the
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night. follow us on your computer. we have fantastic collection maps. we are on politico. we're getting 1 million page views every 10 minutes on politico. just put that in perspective. if you had bought -- 1 million in the day that was a big deal. people are interested in the campaign. long lines on both sides. >> this is very encouraging about our country. a lot people waiting to vote. some waited three and a half hours to vote. we still have an important e- mail here. >> we have to say goodbye to my kids.d night to my >> we talked to a lot of different schools. people are interested in the campaign.
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all that we lament about technology, about the different voices that you hear, people seem more into this election, young and old. and very informed. people -- technology has a great equalizer. everybody has all the information. except for the 130 million or 140 million people voting today. they seem much more informed. if you're looking for a bright spot, it was a grueling campaign march. if you want to look for a gloomy side, we have a couple of companies run the numbers. the number of negative ads in this election, more than 1 million more run in the selection. 86 to 87% of them were negative. >> 1/4 or 1/3 were positive and
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they had an optimistic message. it was 99% negative. seeing voter turnout, people do care and people have gotten excited about it. >> we're watching one of the candidates. so far people in mitt romney's campaign are worried. they're not coming in the way they hoped they would. que>> democrats have a small led in that state come in the senate race. if richard mourdock ends up winning, he is one of two
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republicans were they -- where they weighed in about rape and abortion or had a massive effect. talking about rape alone in any election could cause -- cost republicans to seats. it looks like a big win in indiana. republicans will say it was a silly decision to weigh in on that topic given the -- how controversy is and you have seen it in the polls. to rachel.ing
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>> a state of anticipation as we try to came out every possible scenario and prepare for it. we heard michigan called a little while ago. we had a lot of festive feeling early on especially when the food showed up from the italian store. people were waiting for the food. we have seen one of our white horshouse reporters. they're waiting and holding outside, the president coming to chicago and entertaining themselves with song. they are doing "i'm meeting on a jet plane" and "brown-eyed
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girl." >> ap is calling the race -- it is not a surprise. another reason for romney folks to worry that nothing surprising has happened in ohio. they need something unexpected to happen because the trend has been against them. what are you hearing from the presidential campaigns about how them maps are coming together? what our reporter's telling you about how it looks with the folks therewith? >> up there hearing a lot of confidence from the obama people. not overconfident -- this is a very tight race nationally and in swing states. >> fox news is calling wisconsin for president obama. that was one of the places that
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mitt romney had hoped he could build some insurance. so far, in places that mitt romney hoped to shake things up. >> they said just watch. we will talk about the auto bailout in michigan and ohio and try to target the working class whites and try to keep wisconsin, iowa, michigan, pennsylvania, ohio. it was not long ago that the states were swing states that swung the republican way. the fact that wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania are called this early shows mitt romney did not get the break he needed in his effort to plan the map -- expand the map. it is not -- it is a strong indicator that it is hard to
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imagine that ohio was going to unfold radically different than people think because the characteristic of ohio as a boating electric, the population is similar to michigan. very similar to parts of pennsylvania. if you look at the areas of the states that have declared their vote already and applied it to ohio, you see why the romney folks are nervous about ohio. we will pop back into the newsroom with you. >> tell us about how you are covering it. you run the white house coverage. six to eight people that are covering different parts of the white house. what are some of the things that your team is looking at right now and what do you anticipate the big story coming out of the white house team will be for the
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morning? >> one of the interesting stories is virginia. that was one of the topics that our senior white house reporter highlighted this morning in his five things to watch and you were talking about the midwest and that is true. so far tonight in emerging stories just how close virginia is. both sides say romney needs to win if he is going to win this election and it appears to be very close. long lines in northern virginia. that is something we are watching closely. we're looking at the youth vote and turn out. and the public polls. if the election turns out to be close to the polls we've seen, that will be an interesting moment. that is what we are watching. >> we will come back to the newsroom through the night. we're going back to
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politico.com. what we're seeing in almost every single state as the report is the numbers that are in now will almost identical to the numbers we saw in public polling before. you have michigan going to obama by four points. that was what the pre-campaign polls showed. in florida, 75% of the vote is in. 49.64, come up 49.5 from a. for obama.4 obam 49.5% 4 mitt romney. and you have covered campaigns for a long time.
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give us your thoughts. does it surprise you? >> i'm getting a lot of e-mail from people and the big question is what will nancy do? it looks like the house is going to stay democratic. -- republican. and not pick up any seats, not lose money. everybody is in their own little world right now. you have the big picture of everybody watching. you have everybody watching the president and i am getting these e-mails, a very parochial e- mails saying members are calling around, what will nancy do? it is a side deal going on. >> put that into perspective. recall that a couple of months ago.
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democrats are going to do worse than nancy pelosi was saying they would do for five months ago. nancy pelosi has been rumored to possibly leave. she could remain later she wanted to. if she leaves, who are some of the names that will be bandied about as the next leader of the democratic party in the house of representatives? >> some of the next generation names are debbie wasserman schultz, chris van hollen, steny hoyer would be in line. th and there is a whole layer right underneath and rahm emanuel would have been. they are cooling their heels right now. fenty does not want to go back to california. her family would like to go
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back. she might still around again because -- she raised $215 million. she is the house's biggest fund- raiser. >> we will end up with a more polarized congress. steny hoyer is more moderate. he is an institutional -- has been around for decades and represents a lot of the new democrats. the big question will be, will party, a caucus dominated by liberals and i would say democrats are much more liberal than your average democrat around the country. will they tolerate steny hoyer who they do not see as one of their own? they see him as a compromiser. >> the white house has been ignoring -- democrats have been
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an afterthought. if they had a leader, there would have more muscle. >> one thing that i find interesting to watch is when you can step back and look at the bigger picture, you have a house that is not budging and testing republican. which means that how frustrated that american people are about the non action, about the tea party. this means that i think barack obama should be on the losing end of this campaign because the american people want a change. they wanted to keep the the republicans and to me, the next up is there is a little bit about romney and how he has connected, he is not leading right now. this thing is not over. with the economy the way it is, do we not think that romney
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could be putting this away? >> people expect so much finger- pointing. governor romney does not become president -- this will be seen as the unloseable race. they will tell you we already lost before it started. just second-guessing -- there could be fingerpointing all over town. we have seen outside groups and the republican senators and the convention speakers, the convention -- there could be plenty of blame to go around. >> absolutely. the question becomes did they just have a bad candidate or is the party -- does the party really need to turn itself around? is the party in a war with itself ended the need to take a look at the demographics and
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step out beyond the white vote. >> for all our viewers, this is politico live. we will be here all night trying to break down results. we know about the process. one of the great things as we have 60 or 70 reporters that only cover politics, only covered governance. we have a lot of information. a lot about how these folks -- that is the most important question. it is determined by the outcome tonight. how this country feels with the debt of eight trillion dollars a year. most people will say you cannot afford this over the long term. how do you deal with a polarized country, polarized congress at a time when you do need compromise?
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congress cannot kick the can because they have kicked it for so many years and i have to deal with tax cuts and reform and deal with entitlement reform. you have to do this while you have massive uncertainty in the middle east. >> one of the big call so far, your home state, wisconsin, called for president obama. this was a state that you believed strongly was winnable for republicans. we have to stop and note what an unusual situation it is. one of the nominees losing in his home state. and the governor had just gone through a successful recall. what do you make of this early call for wisconsin for barack obama? >> it is big in that if barack obama wins ohio, it is over.
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it is hard to see a path that romney would need. michigan and pennsylvania are already off the table. it is a big setback for paul ryan. i do not think he was on the ticket to win wisconsin but given -- even if the state elected a conservative senator, even if gov. walker is not a moderate, he is a conservative. he defeated a recall election. it is a state with a conservative infrastructure that is strong and a lot of people thought romney would get a two. or three. come from that. -- two or three point bump from that. talking thathe
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romney was underperforming in the suburbs. >> we have [inaudible] and is known to a lot of people here. what are you hearing from your friends and contacts about how virginia is coming in? >> this is continuing optimism out of the romney folks. the early announcement went very well. there are still lines in some virginia polls. we have seen some other calls for president. the key states of virginia, ohio, and florida are very much in play. >> would you be looking for at this point in the night for people who are going on politico and watching the virginia map and watching the numbers that have come in looking much like
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the cocaine -- mccain-obama race where the ball one. what should they look for on that virginia map? what county is the romney campaign looking at? >> i think i have to say that -- there are still lines of people that have not been able to get in and vote. if that is not correct we have a problem with respect to turn out. if that is correct and there's a lot of reasons for optimism. if the turnout is that heavy, the hope is in virginia. if that is not correct, those are the anecdotal reports i am hearing. northern virginia turnout -- that is a good sign for
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president obama. >> our thanks to politico, their coverage continues and the simulcast on our companion network, c-span2 as we continue our coverage. a liviu of the white house. the polls are closed in two- thirds of the country. at 10:00 p.m. eastern time they will close in ottawa, montana, and utah. alaska closes at 1:00 a.m. eastern time. we're in boston where the romney headquarters is located. the president and his team is in chicago. we're at the rnc headquarters in washington, d.c. and on capitol hill where the democrats are gathering and all evening we will show you the latest results. these are actual numbers. these are not projections as we track the key house, senate, and gov.'s races as well as the presidential race and you can keep track of all this on our website.
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this is the only network that gives you a forum to express your views in what is happening with results tonight and you can do so by giving us a phone call. the number is 202-730-triples 32. [inaudible] you can also join us on our twitter page. #cspan2012. we will get that in a couple of minutes. john boehner is here and let's get to some of the latest results. >> ap is calling some states in the presidential contest. let's start with new hampshire and take a look at the results. with 20% of precincts reporting, president obama has 55%. mitt romney at 44%.
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let's move on to the state of florida. a contested battleground state and we see there quite close. president obama 50%, mitt romney at 49%. moving on to the state of virginia, as we just heard from politico, even though the polls closed, it took awhile for people to get the opportunity to vote so we're still watching to see precincts come in. we have over 60% of precincts reporting. governor romney in the lead. moving on to the key battleground state of ohio, nearly one-quarter of precincts reporting. president obama in the lead 53%, mitt romney, 46%. let's go down to pennsylvania, another crucial state. over 20% of precincts reporting. president obama in the lead 61%. governor romney, 37%.
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romney making a last-minute push in that state. michigan, that state has been called by the associated press. we see president obama. 51%. governor romney, 40%. wisconsin rounding out our states for the moment looking at the presidential contest. a few precincts reporting. governor romney in the lead 51%. and then we see president obama of, 48%. both candidates have made efforts in the state. let's move on to some senate races and look at what we see shaping up in the u.s. senate. with 79 percent of precincts reporting in florida. senator bill nelson keeps his seat. republican challenger congressman connie mack not able to make inroads in florida. west virginia. senator joe mansion also keeping his seat. 61%. the republican challenger, 36%.
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this was a rematch of a race between the two of them a couple of years ago. and in connecticut, congressman chris mervey. and 44% of the boat with 19 -- the ap has called that connecticut race. the ap has also called the race in maine with angus king. and for more, you can always go to our website. it can see the race, the balance of power, and -- and watch presidential results come in as well. >> boston, chicago, and here, that is where the party headquarters are located. the gentleman who headed up the house committee now speaking to supporters. let's listen in. >> not only did we rebuild
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before we passed them, but we made sure that the bills were about growing jobs, the american dream, and making things even better. tonight, the american people have once again given the house of representatives to republicans. and john boehner will be our speaker once again. ladies and gentlemen, we will continue to work with the american people on ideas that will make our country stronger, more competitive, and to build back the american dream. help me welcome the speaker of the united states congress, the gentleman from ohio, john boehner. [applause] >> hey, fellow republicans.
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let me say thanks to pete sessions and the team of the house campaign committee for an incredible job over the last two years. listen, i want to thank eric kanter, karen mccarthy, and our leadership team and our conference for everything they have done to secure our house republican majority. i am going to thank [inaudible] who has done a marvelous job as chairman and worked closely with our team to bring our team to victory and of course i will think mitt romney and paul ryan -- thank mitt romney and paul ryan who carries the banner of our party with grace, a vision, strength, and dignity. most of all, i think we want to thank the american people.
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for two years, our house majority has been the primary line of defense for the american people against a government that has spent too much, taxes to much, certainly boroughs to much when it is left unchecked. in the face of a staggering national debt that trends our children's futures, our majority passed a budget that begins to solve the problem. while others chose inaction in the face of this threat, which offered solutions. the american people want solutions. tonight, they responded by renewing our house republican majority. with this vote, the american people have also made clear that there is no mandate for raising tax rates. what americans want better solutions that will ease the burdens of small businesses, and letting our economy grow. we have stood ready to work with
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any willing partner. demographic or otherwise who shares the commitment to getting to those things done. brevin interested by the american people with the responsibility of leading the people's house. we will never taken for granted and we will never let you down. god bless you and god bless our country. [cheers and applause] >> the speaker of the house, john boehner at the reagan building in washington, d.c. joined by congressman pete sessions. he headed up the house committee for the republicans as the gop keeps control of the u.s. house of representatives. also on the senate side, democrats picking up one possibly -- one, possibly to seats -- two seats.
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richard mourdock losing in indiana. reaction? >> i feel that it is a tight race and i feel that the obama campaign is going to win it. i hope and pray that they win it. >> we will go to steve on the republican line from jackson, mississippi. good evening to you. >> how are you doing? >> fine, thank you. >> i do not feel like a, has put in work to be the president. once again he led us down. jobs are nowhere in mississippi that i can find and i've been looking for three years. we need you to step up.
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>> dennis is next from four again. -- oregon. >> i have been an independent most of my life. i just voted for barack obama because the fact that everything he tried to do was blocked by the republicans and what he has accomplished is a lot in the last four years. i hope he wins. >> thank you for the call. from our twitter page. the networks declaring that barack obama winning pennsylvania. pennsylvania was mitt romney's pat way to-- pathway to 270. that pathways closing up fast. line.mocrats' >> hello and thank you for taking my call. i wanted to say that i am a retired firefighter, 34 years.
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70% of our responses are medical related. most of those people go to the emergency room. they have no primary care. where have the republicans been for the last 50 years on this. they have no alternative. people need to wake up. people in norway, germany, all these other countries have cradle to grave health care. we have got nothing here. ok? people need to wake up. >> that was health care, the most important issue? >> that is prairie. i have health care and i am lucky that i do. people in my family do not. ok. most of these calls that we respond to, people have nothing. people live in little apartments by themselves, have these people cannot even go to the bathroom by themselves, ok? you do not see this people. they're not out on the streets. >> ok, thanks for the call. you're looking on the screen from chicago campaign headquarters for the president
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will speak to supporters later tonight if he is declared the winner. mitt romney speaking to supporters in boston and the numbers are on the bottom of the screen. those percentages are real numbers courtesy of the associated press. the democratic leader nancy pelosi speaking to supporters on capitol hill. she was joined by representative steve israel and congressman steny hoyer of maryland. >> it is going to be a good evening. our president is going to be our president. steve israel is assuring me we will pick up states in the house and yes, we think we're going to take back the house. i am so pleased to be year. -- to be here. we are fighting for the priorities our country knows are important. for the values that this country
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knows is critically important. for investing in education, in growing our jobs in america, in investing in protecting our environment and investing in the health care of our people. americans believe lyonesse priorities. i want to congratulate my friend steve israel for the extraordinary job he has done. i have gone through this country, i have been in almost 90 districts, 89 districts in this country. campaigning with extraordinary candidates. some incumbents khomeni challengers. they are extraordinary people who will do an excellent, outstanding job as a members of the congress. steve israel has set an objective. he has worked hard and he's going to prove successful tonight. ladies and gellman me say this. we could not have been successful without the
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leadership, the extraordinary energy, the focus, and the extraordinary ability to raise funds for the cause, not for the party, but for the cause of making a better america. so many of you in this room have joined with her and with us in making sure that we have the resources to prevent -- present our case. and want to congratulate nancy pelosi, our leader. [cheers and applause] you have all heard me say over and over again, i have been at this for some period of time. i have never seen anybody with more energy, or focus, more self discipline, and more effectiveness in conveying the message of our party and ensuring we have the resources to get that message to the american people. nancy pelosi, thank you very much.
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i know nancy is going to say it. i know steve is going to say it. without so many of you in this room, we could not have got to where we are getting today. we could not have raised our voices without your help. without your caring about your country, without your caring about the message, without your caring about the health care and the internment and education of our people. we thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts. for helping your country be even better. our president is going to be reelected tonight. [cheers and applause] and i am with him -- with him we pledge to keep going forward. ladies and gentlemen, somebody who has done an extraordinary job as the chairman of our dccc who has brought his wisdom and
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extraordinary energy to accomplish this objective. my good friend, steve israel. >> are you pumped up tonight? how about a big hand for steny hoyer? he has been marvelous, traveling throughout this country supporting our candidate, unifying our caucus, and how about a big hand for nancy pelosi for everything she does? i'm going to introduce her properly in one minute. i want to be very brief. a couple i will take a moment of personal privilege. we're thinking about winning the house but i want you to know i represent a district on long island that got ravaged by the hurricane and while we're talking about winning the house there are a lot of long islanders who are trying to figure how to keep their homes and turn on lights and heat their homes and we're thinking about winning but we want to make sure that in addition to winning the house, we're
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thinking about this people who do not have homes. on the house of representatives. a couple of points. the republicans said that tonight, there were going to win 16 seats. we are not letting them win 16 seats. we're going to gain seats tonight in the house of representatives. they're not gaining 16 seats. they are wrong then and they're wrong now. two, i am so proud that we democrats in this cycle and 2012, we have stopped the tea party. we are retiring the tea party. we're rolling back the tea party and we're taking down the tea party. we're beating people -- tea party incumbents and we're going to govern again. i am so proud of the staff. let's hear it for the democratic congressional committee staff.
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everything that we were asked to do by the leader pelosi and steny hoyer, everything that we were asked to do we did and surpassed expectations. fundraising. we are the minority party right now and we out raised by $16.20 million. 55 seats in play. outstanding candidates. problem solvers, solutionists, astronauts, generals, small business entrepreneurs. 55 districts in play and we will win a bunch of them tonight. give a big hand for this candidate. -- these candidates. here's the final report. historic unprecedented ground game that is winning district we did not think would be in play. 910 field staff. 26 states. our volunteers knocked on merit -- nearly $5 million and met 18
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million voters. and volunteers this weekend have not done nearly $4,000,000.3999999 locals. 132,000 volunteer hours talking to democrats and independents and republicans. -- we have a knight had the best. we still have races to be one in nevada, washington, california. we are feeling upbeat and good. who knows california better than the leader? this cycle, she has done only 692 events. raised only $85.1 million. dent october, she raised $12.9 million.
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an hour ago, we had a meeting and she said what can i do for the next few hours? ladies and gentlemen, our leader, nancy pelosi. [applause] >> thank you all. thank you, steny hoyer, who is going to a great victory in maryland tonight. steve israel, thank you for a great job as you are continuing to do as we go across the country. let's congratulate him on a job well done. [applause] a 12 thank -- i want to thank each and everyone of you. the voters, the volunteers, our supporters throughout the country. this is not for the faint of
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heart. to get into a race for congress. they have done so with courage, conviction, with idealism, with ideas, with problem-solving for the future. many of them will become members of congress tonight. this exercise in democratic politics, electing people, the government of the many, not the government of the money. the project that characterization. -- we reject that characterization. our democracy is on the ballot. i say this with some level of pride since california is still floating. as you may have noticed, we won the world series last week. the san francisco giants. why i mention that, i mentioned at all the time, but why i mention it tonight -- we had our
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celebration last wednesday and the players spoke before a million people gathered there. one of the players said we are a very diverse team. but the reason we were able to win is because we played together as a team. we cared more about the name on the front of our uniformed dummy cared about the name on the back. that is exactly what you and our candidates and our volunteers care about -- team usa on the front of our uniform. team usa. that is what we are fighting for. we are fighting for reigniting the american dream, building ladders of opportunity for people who want to work hard, play by the rules, take responsibility. centered around small businesses
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and all entrepreneurship and a strong and writing -- thriving middle-class, the backbone of our democracy. the team usa fight is for the middle-class, the american dream, medicare, our seniors instead of millionaires as the ryan budget would propose. the fact that. it is about the hard fought fight for women which is on the ballot today. these elections, as they unfold across the country, will unroll new democrats who will come to the congress and joined the fight to work with our great presidents, four more years, barack obama. so the night is young. we have many elections, many races. we need everyone to get out the vote across the country. i think the president will win
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early. but that does that mean we want -- do not want everyone to vote until the latest possible moment it into california, alaska, and hawaii for the president of the united states, barack obama. to elect a democratic united states senate and descended many more democrats to the house of representatives, exceeding everyone's expectation and perhaps achieving our drive for 25. thank you all for being on team usa. usa, usa! crowd: usa! >> okay, thank you all. get back to work. there we go; . >> the democratic leader in the house, nancy pelosi of california, joined by rep steny
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hoyer and other democratic -- democratic colleagues. the ap declaring the u.s. house will stay in republican hands. currently there are 240 republican seats, 190 democratic seats. five vacancies three more results coming in. the polls still open in the west coast. another hour to go in california and hawaii. the polls closing at 1:00 eastern time in alaska. we will hear from you. we want to ask who you voted for and why and your reaction to the results. cnn a few minutes ago declared a hampshire for the president and its four key electoral votes. both with an eye on the electoral votes. this is the scene from the obama campaign headquarters in chicago. we are also in boston at romney headquarters. jill is on the phone, democrats, warren, pennsylvania. what was a light when he went to
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the polls today? caller: we vote in a very small town. i saw one of my former students. host: as the look of the results tonight, what do you think? caller: i see president obama all the way. as a teacher, this is fantastic. unions, we very strongly support president obama. host: jasmine from st. augustine, florida, republican line. caller: i voted early. this was my first year that i could actually vote. and i voted for romney. i voted for him because he is all about helping the middle- class and having small businesses.
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my fiancee and his father owned a small business. the democrats talk about how that are moving forward and i have not seen any forward progression in the past four years. i have seen more debt and taking more money out of the debt to cover war debt. the whole middle-class thing and the fact that romney is a christian and does have godly police, that was a strong aspect of it too. it was a lot easier for me to vote for romney then i thought but it was the first time i was able to vote and i was excited to be a part of this. host: what were the crowds like? caller: 5 of last wednesday. i got there in the middle of the afternoon -- i voted last wednesday. i got there in the middle of the afternoon. the lines were not that crazy. was very simple. they walked me through it.
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i went early in the afternoon and there was not any lines or aggravation. it was very easy. host: a couple of key counties in florida. it will be key to determining who gets to the 270 electoral votes. still tabulations in virginia and ohio. the numbers your say on the bottom of the screen are actual numbers, ap numbners, not projections. they are also available on our website at c-span.org. let's go to scott and next. boston treelined for independence. your reaction tonight. caller: i am pleased with the contrast between the two candidates. i mentioned earlier that congress wrote an excellent article until november that
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talked-about the two candidates. even though they endorsed obama. i did 04 obama. -- i did vote for obama. i think he is an amazing human being. but i would like to see more of as -- is reaching across the aisle. one of the things they said is he neglected to spend more time with the republicans. they pointed out 104 things he played, -- golf games he played. one of them was with a republican member. as much as i appreciate president obama as a human being, as an individual, and politician, i would like to see him and prove on the things that can make this country better because the discourse we have in this country is very unfortunate. there is so much tension between parties rather than identifying what the american issue is, not
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a party issue is. women get there, we will have a healthier issue. host: thank you for the culprit this scene four years ago. the president at grant park. in much more different night. in mild evening -- a mild evening. karen is on the phone, democrats line, new orleans. your reaction so far? caller: i am a little worried. ivo the barack obama as i did four years ago. -- i voted for barack obama as i did four years ago. in the sec it will come down to the wire. host: what states are you most worried about? caller: virginia and florida. host: thank you for the call.
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it will take you right now to connecticut. linda mcmahon losing her bid. live coverage here on c-span. >> thank you also very much. that was a wonderful welcome. just as the same way you have welcomed me all over the state. the same tears you have given me as we have gone into a room together or attack a problem together are planned a strategy together. you have been there. and i love each and every one of you and i will repeat what governor told me when i first started running. she said you are going to love the people of connecticut when you can get out and meet them. and i do. from the bottom of my heart, i thank all of you. [applause]
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>> there is no way that i could individually start to thank everyone. the folks on the stage. my wonderful family here with me tonight. friends and relatives to come in from out of town. i have great supporters all through the campaign. i would really rather have won but we gave it an incredibly good fight. so i want to thank -- [applause] i truly want to thank all of these folks on the states. especially my family here tonight. i am so proud of them and i want to thank also the men and women from the wonderful company i
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help the crow, world wrestling entertainment. without them -- helped grow, weld wrestling entertainment. without them, i would not be standing on the stage tonight. [applause] and of course of a like to think my husband, vince, who stood beside me and behind me all the way through this. [applause] he is very shy. he does not want to come out. [laughter] but this was, this campaign i look back on with no regrets. i do not think we left a stone unturned. i do not think we would have done anything differently in the campaign. i really had an incredibly amazing campaign staff from
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strategists to our campaign manager to all those people who worked in the field, our communications people. and all of the thousands of volunteers who worked so hard in our field offices all over the state. i thank you for that. [applause] we made over 1 million phone calls, probably almost 2 million phone calls. not on over 1 million doris -- knocked on over 1 million doors. it was an incredibly well run, hard-fought race. i have called congressman murphy and i have congratulated him on his victory tonight. i ask him to please continue to work hard for the people in our state so that we can get those
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170,000 who look up this morning without a job to work, so we can put policies in place in washington that will reduce our taxes and grow our economy. and i sincerely hope people do that and work with the rest of the connecticut delegation. we can only hope and support him and our other members of the delegation serving us in washington. they need to hear from us. they need to know what they need to do so is our responsibility now, listen to me, please, everyone listened to me for a minute. it is our responsibility to charge them, to challenge them, to make sure they hear what we say, and to make sure that they are doing what we need because they work for us. [applause]
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and if we let them forget that, shame on us. because we need to voice our concerns. and we need to save what we need -- to say what we need. i am looking forward to being helpful in that regard. so let me once again thank all of you so much for being here tonight, for being on the campaign trail, and for believing in me and having confidence in me. we had a good race and i am really out of the effort that we have. again, thank you all very, very much and i will see you soon. [applause] >> linda mcmahon giving her
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concession speech in the senate connecticut race. she poured over $40 billion of her own money into that. she was unable to defeat rep chris murphy. she is a democrat who will go to the senate into the connecticut race. let's look at these results. courtesy of the associated press. they have called some of the senate races. chris murphy, 53% of the vote, defeating linda mcmahon. another state where the ap has called it, it dicks% of the vote defeating republican former congressman pete hoekstra. senator sharon brown in ohio. the republican, 44% of the vote. the race in the pennsylvania, it has been call for senator bob casey, the democrat.
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8% of the vote. -- 58% of the vote. in indiana, the ap has called for congressman joe donnelly, the democrat. 49 percent of the vote. challenger richard murdock, 45% of the vote. he may controversial remarks recently regarding rape and god's will that decreases numbers in recent polls. don't donnelly moving over to the senate -- joe nunnelee moving over to the senate. he is making his victory speech and giving us a few remarks. >> thank you very much. thank you so much for all your help. i looked out at all of you and you all made phone calls and you all knocked on doors and were
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out in cold whether going from house to house. that is why i am going to be the next united states senator from the state of indiana. but it is not about me. my dear friend has come back time and time again to travel with me to go all over the state to spend time, people. the entire state party team, what an incredible job. all of the county chairs, all of the county organizations. most of all, to hoosier voters. you gave us a chance. what we said was the most important thing was hoosier common sense going to washington, d.c. thank mr. murdoch and
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his family for a spirited campaign. thank you very much for applauding for them. i want to thank the most patient spouse in the state of indiana, my wife. [applause] the rest of my family here with me tonight, i have not seen them very much. they told me i looked older and more worn out. but this is about our future. the chance for good jobs. to see our economy grow, to work together in washington. we can solve these problems. we can solve the budget deficit problem. we can solve the problem of making sure our men and women come home from afghanistan let me tell you, we have the best
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soldiers, marines, navy, coast guard, merchant marines in the world. and we owe a debt of gratitude to them that we can never repay. [applause] we have a tradition in indiana in the united states senate. that tradition are people like richard luger who work together. whose only focus is on what is right for our country. so i say to all my fellow hoosiers out there, this is not about politics. this is not about one party or the other. our tradition of men and women, tremendous servants everywhere. people like richard who gave his heart and soul to this country in the navy," as mayor of indianapolis, as a center for our state. that is the model we have.
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and the senator who served as senator and governor. and everyone out there, i am not the way they're as one party's center or the other party's center. i am going there as your center to work for your family. i and the hired help and i cannot wait to get to work. thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> congressman joe donnelly, a democrat. meanwhile republican richard murdock now at the podium as he can see defeat in the indiana senate race. >> governor daniels has so often said, we are the party of purpose that will stand for the rule of law and life itself. thank you very much. >> very brief remarks by richard murdock. in nebraska, and expecting it to be in republican pickup.
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mr. murdoch losing to congressman joe donnelly. we will use this chance to hear from you tonight as results continued to come in. keeping an eye on virginia, florida, and ohio. as we reach the 270 electoral vote mark. let's go to cathy joining us from utah. on our republican line. good evening. what are the polls like when you went to date court -- today are to be a vote today? caller: i did vote today. it was very busy. i was impressed with that. my basic ideal is -- [unintelligible] yet he gives so much money for
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abortion. it takes millions in tax dollars. into that the six, they did 289 -- in 2006, they did 280 abo rtions. host: you are putting out a lot of numbers. a message tonight is what? caller: we are providing half the money of what they make annually. we are no longer a nonprofit organization. host: thank you for the call. jim is on the phone, and attended, los angeles. -- independent.
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los angeles. caller: i've voted for obama and did early building. voting. i am really excited about tonight. in looks like it will be a referendum on the extreme policies of the republican party. then to the right, voters are waking up to that in rejecting that. it was great to see the coverage for third-party debates. i am excited that obama is progressing nicely tonight. the national 80th party endorsed
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obama to win. -- atheist party endorsed obama to win. his policy take into account the people's voice. host: the associated press saying it is too early to declare a result of in the key battleground states of north carolina, virginia, and ohio. the networks have declared in new hampshire for the president. its 4 electoral votes. i will quote what the polls closing now. we have the numbers on the bottom of the screen. you can also go to our web site at c-span.org and check out our election hub. we keep track of the presidential race in the key house and senate races. let's go to brooklyn. democrats line. caller: i am from jackson heights. i have been watching with great joy and amazement.
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when the founders of this nation but the constitution and they were envisioning democracy, they made a bet on the american people that they would be able to go through -- host: we will stop you there and go back to pennsylvania. tom smith losing in his bid against abbott -- against democrat bob casey. >> who would have thought that an old farm boy from armstrong county who got his place in the coal mines would be standing here with all the good people tonight. what a ride. [applause] there's something very important i have to say right now. thank you.
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[applause] thank you everyone who could be here tonight with us. i would like to thank the people who could not be here tonight with us. you know who you are and we would not have come so close without your help. thank you to my campaign staff and the thousands of volunteers who poured their sweat and hard work into this effort for so many months. and thank you, my beautiful family who stand here with me. [applause] especially my wonderful wife,
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sandy, the love of my life. [applause] i cannot have gotten so far and gotten so close without you guys and i love you. all of you. i also want to take a moment to a knowledge and thank center casey. i just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago and congratulated him on his victory. while senator casey and i disagree on many things, we both share a love for this country and this state. and we both believe that america's best days are ahead of her. most of all, i want to take -- thank the voters in pennsylvania for putting their faith in me at this critical time in our history. tonight, they spoke about the
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and clearly that they are ready to change course. outcome doess nothing to change that. this was a long campaign. some even said it would be an impossible one. but when or lose tonight, we always do that challenge ahead of us would be daunting. i know pennsylvania will rise to that challenge. because we must. i know that working together, we will bring back america and we will restore her great promise. and what we came up short tonight -- while we came up short tonight, the task in front of us remains the same.
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we must repeal obamacare. [applause] we must stop deficit spending. we must end this war on american energy, this war on pennsylvania coal. [applause] most importantly, we must get this economy roaring again. i will not stop until this is done. i know all of you will not either stop. this election was not about which party your family identifies with, this election
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was about whether or not it is time for america to change course and it is not too late. tonight, despite the outcome, we answered that question. and tomorrow, we all take up to work that needs to be done that does not go away. tomorrow, we redouble our efforts to take back this country. [applause] the time for politics and tonight. the partisanship and gridlock in watchinggridlockd.c -- gridlock n. d.c. haso crippled our government.
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getting our people back to work restoring our freedoms. tonight i want to make a promise to you. i am ready to continue the fight day in and day out until this work is done. but only if you will too. so we leave here tonight not sat, not angry, not defeated. we leave here tonight with a renewed sense of purpose. we leave here tonight with hope. we leave here tonight with optimism. we leave here tonight knowing we still have much left to do.
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we are ready to face this next challenge, ready to fight for the god-given freedom that has been made our nation strong and ready to work together for a prosperous future for our children, grandchildren, and their children. thank you also very much, god bless you, and got lost pennsylvania and god bless america. thank you. -- god bless pennsylvania and god bless america. thank you. >> republican tom smith in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, conceding in the senate race with about the nitti% of the vote reported in the keystone state. -- about 48% of the vote reported in the keystone state. we are also keeping an eye on the massachusetts senate race in boston. it has been declared the winner
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elizabeth warren over republican incumbent scott brown. he won the seat previously held for four decades by senator ted kennedy. we will take you live to boston with senator brown comes to the podium. jermaine is on the phone, republican, new orleans. your reaction so far with the result? caller: i am a republican ivan the for mccain and bush. this time around, i did for president obama. the visit by the different president obama -- the reason i voted for president obama. i am a realist. the bible speaks that -- the 10 commandments. with the flip flopping and lying to the american people.
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host: thank you so much. the sticky to boston and senator scott brown who lost his reelection effort in massachusetts -- let's take you to boston and senator scott brown who lost his reelection effort in massachusetts. >> thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much. it is wonderful to be out here. please, i cannot want to see any sad faces. we ran a fantastic campaign. thank you very much. you and i have waged a great campaign. i could not have asked for a better ally and friends to see us through this battle. we stood strong identified and we stand strong now, even in a disappointment so take you very much.
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[applause] -- so thank you very muhc. ch. [applause] you have no business in politics and thus to respect the judgment of people. if you have to -- if you run for office, you have to take it either way, winning or losing. i have already offered my sincerest congratulations to senator unlike warren. -- senator elect warren. crowd boos >> no, no. she won it fair and square, folks. and she has received a high honor. may she bring that senate office rate credit, just as i set out to do nearly three years ago. i said in the very beginning back in january that win or
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lose, we would run a race that we would all be proud of. and i am very proud of each and every one of you. [applause] as you know, it has been two statewide campaigns in three years. both times, we dared to battle and we were not afraid of defeat. we started in late 2009 with a truck, a stack of yard signs and a roomful of france. we took that to the united states senate and i am very thankful for that. it has absolutely been a wonderful ride and i want to
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take for the honor of being your united states senator. [applause] know what the most difficult part of this is? i now have to break the news to my truck that i will be taking it home. [laughter] you guys are all fired up tonight. this is great. [applause] thank you, alright. what matters even more is what we achieved. -- i kept my promise to you. i kept my promise to you to be
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that independent voice from massachusetts and i have never ever, ever regretted any decision that i made for you. you all sent to washington to be my own man and i will be returning my own man and for that i am very proud. thank you for that opportunity. right now, i want to reach out to the young people that may be watching or listening and those who have maybe fountain that -- found an especially difficult time in their life, and difficult station in their life, and those face without or uncertainty. we live in the greatest country in the world and i am so thankful for the opportunity.
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when it seems that nothing is possible and the odds are stacked against you, let me tell you, i can speak from experience, anything is possible. there are no obstacles you cannot overcome. defeat is only temporary. [applause] you guys are great. when i took up this cause, i knew the work was bigger and
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harder than anything i could do on my own. anything in the world. i asked for a lot of help from each and everyone of you and i could not be more prouder -- so thank you very much. i came this far on the strength of thousands. we came this far on the strength of thousands. people all around the state who volunteered and gave it their all, our finance committee, all the volunteers. each and everyone of you in this room. i cannot have gone this far without each and everyone of you in this room. thank you very much for the gratitude that i have for each and everyone of you. it is really remarkable.
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i want to thank the campaign team. they did a great job with insurmountable odds. they stuck with me. i cannot even talk. thank you, thank you very much. hey, i love you guys too, thank you. the campaign team stuck with me at every turn. they put up with me and i'm very grateful for their friendship and the endless hours they committed to this effort. i want to especially thank my senate staff. [applause] there is nothing, listen, i am going to sleep very well tonight, folks. i will go on a nice run tomorrow
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morning. you guys can chased me around if you can keep up with me. i will never ever regret helping people that could not help themselves. [applause] those people who are hurting through the interference of government regulation and falling through the seams and those wonderful stories that we heard in the letters we have on our walls of problems we solved for people. i will never, ever forget this opportunity to help those people. i will still keep working for you, do not worry. most importantly, i want to thank my wife, gail.
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and just for the record, i am out to the not going to say anything about my daugheters tonight. as you know, gail stood with me for the first time in her life with me in this came in the campaign and worked as hard as anyone to carry out -- carry us across the finish line. collette, support, advice get me going at times when i thought the odds were insurmountable. gail and i have never felt so much pride but it worked with our daughters, so, thank you ladies.
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as you know, many of my family and friends are here. i want to thank my mom, judy. mom, raise your hand. my sister, le ann, robin, my brother bruce as well. and all of my extended family and friends. one thing that it's a little different though is my dad is not here. he has been on very bad health and has been struggling. i am not sure what it's going to happen but he is right here with me and i want to say that i love him and thank him for his support. i'm kind of psyched that you guys hung around.
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crowd: go, scott, go! many of you know in your lives, there is a point in your life when you take on a challenge and you do something that no one ever thought you could achieve and you do the very best you possibly could. and you leave everything on the table, whether you are in a sporting event, do leave everything on the court, whether you are the battle and leave everything in the battlefield, i have left everything in this battle. i want to thank you for the opportunity. whatever the future holds, i am fortunate man to be where i have been.
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i am very fortunate -- [applause] host: we would go to richmond, virginia. george allen, a tight senate race. >> beautiful people listening to them, learning from them and being inspired by the people of virginia and their unshakable belief in the promise of the american dream. tonight after a very hard-fought contest, we were reminded how closely divided we are here in virginia politically. i glad i got off the sidelines. i am very glad we did get off the sidelines and get into the fight and advocate the ideas and the solutions and the principles that we believe our porting for
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the future of our country. there are many people that we have heard from all over virginia. we have learned from them, heard their voices. it is important for people to advocate for the values and families of small business people throughout the commonwealth of virginia who have not been listened to in washington. i want to say a word about tim kane. -- tim kaine. we had the highest honor anybody could be accorded from the people of virginia to serve as governor. i also have the opportunity to serve virginia in the united states senate. now tim kaine will have the opportunity. i have called him and congratulated him very -- him. we tried to which the campaign on ideas and issues and reforms we feel would be best for
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virginia and america. we still remain friends personally. i congratulated him and i pledge my cooperation and support has the and shakes the sullom task of representing the people of virginia during a very difficult times in our nation's history. we have not succeeded in winning this election. many folks helping out in this campaign. each of you should hold your heads high. we honestly and vigorously advocated our principles and offered a clear vision for the future. creating jobs and a competitive tax system, and powering education, reasonable at it -- policy.
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offered a pro freedom path to fiscal responsibility for our nation. the best way to preserve the peace is the strength. we also call for unleashing america's plentiful american energy resources for more jobs, opportunity, greater national security and revenues to the government. that is everywhere from our fields to the coast. virginia is ready and able to power the economy. we spoke to renew our historic commitment to individual freedom, personal responsibility and opportunity for every american to succeed. what i remember hearing from some many virginians, a small-
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business man who said i want the government to get off my back and out of my pocket. i think it would be nice if we had a government that was on this side of entrepreneurs and small-business owners. those ideas did not prevail in this senate contest here in virginia but if america is going to have a comeback that we all hope for, we must prevail as a nation with these ideas. not be tomorrow, it may not be next week, maybe not even next year. but these ideas, these principles must prevail. they are rooted in the historic fundamental principles of our commonwealth of virginia and america. these ideals and these principles are our hope for the future. i pledge my best efforts as a private citizen to promote these positive ideas as i keep fighting and advocating for all
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of these principles and ideals that we all believe in. folks, it has been a long and difficult campaign. it has also been a joyful one. for susan and for me, i also think for our children, as tough as it is, taking for standing strong. -- thank you for standing strong. [applause] we have met so many generous people from all walks of life in every region of our commonwealth and at every turn, we have been lifted up by your words, your encouragement, your generosity. we have always felt your prayers. that meant the most. and from the bottom of our hearts, susan and i think the and all the people of virginia for these many kindnesses. i cannot leave t cannot leavehanking certain people -- i
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cannot leave here without thanking certain people. our campaign manager, thank you. a loyal and trusted leader. betsy, thank you. frank and our entire staff to work hard and did not sleep, i thank each and every one of you and our volunteers. an's sidekick all over virginia. i want to thank all the energetic volunteers. there was such enthusiasm. thank each and everyone of you all for putting up signs, some getting their hands cut putting them up, thank you for everything you've done with their time, your talents, and
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your treasure to support our cause. but it is not our cause, it is america's cause. this campaign was not for us. it was for the people of virginia. the people of virginia remain in our hearts. the people of virginia until my dying breath will have my eternal gratitude for the honor and responsibility, not disserving but also being -- not just serving but also be the one who got into the arena. you have to get into the fight. this is a pivotal time at the the our country's history. each and every one of you recognize the importance of this election and -- in determining the protection of our country. we are not happy with the result but we're still alive. so long as they do not kill you, you can keep fighting. [applause] and folks, we need to continue to keep putting our beliefs into action and my hope is that each
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and every one of you all will keep fighting, keep working, keep the faith, and most importantly, always stand strong for freedom. thank you all. thank you. host: former governor george allen in richmond virginia. the most expensive race in the country when you count campaign dollars and outside money, more than $70 million. tim kaine with 51% of the vote, doris allen with 49%. the former governor -- george allen with 49%. all of these numbers are available on our website at c- span.org. we are also keeping track on a
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state-by-state race. click on election hub. andrew is on the phone tambov then -- phone. fresno, california. independent line. your reaction to that? caller: quite interesting. i voted for mitt romney because one of the most important issues to me -- the killing of 1.3 million human beings every year. that is almost 3500 a day? host: at the next in montana, california. democrats line. caller: i am voting for mitt romney. i like his plan with businesses.
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[indiscernible] hopefully i will get a job and in the computer business. i am looking forward to how this election turns out. it is nice to see younger people like myself so involved in this election. technology today has brought us americans together. host: next to marla in wisconsin. republican line. good evening. your thoughts about the results night? caller: i voted for mitt romney. host: what is a study about the wrist -- the state of the republican party? -- what does this tell you about the state of the republican party? caller: we hope we can pull through. the united states deserves better than what obama was able to give us the last four years. coming from wisconsin, we had to
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deal with the whole scott recall. we fought for it then. we deserve to have our rights, our freedoms, our military as strong as it can be, and the whole u.s. deserves that. i have kids. they deserve a brighter future. host: thanks for the call. it is 11:00 in the east, 8:00 in the west, the polls closing in the california, hawaii, idaho, oregon, and washington. idaho expected to go for the republicans and mitt romney. let's look at more campaign results. >> key battleground states for the presidency still in place here the latest from the associated press, look at the
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state of ohio. a key state. both candidates hope to win. with 66% reporting, president obama has 50% of the vote. governor mitt romney, 48%. another close the-what state is va. mitt romney, 50%. barack obama, 49%. wisconsin, president obama, 50%. governor romney, 49%. quite close with 35% reporting. florida. 93% reporting. barack obama, 50%. governor romney, 49%. the associated press has called some states. arizona, governor romney with 56%. the state of pennsylvania up next. we see president obama victorious. 54% of the vote. new hampshire has also been called by the associated press. president obama, 52% of the
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vote. you can find all results from our website, c-span.org. host: more of your calls and comments. tell us what you think about the results. here is a recap. the u.s. house a stinging in republican hands. the senate for the moment expected to stay in democratic hands. the race is too close to call in the presidential race with returns still coming in from florida, ohio, north carolina, and virginia. those states will determine whether the president is reelected or mitt romney still has a task to get to 270 electron volts. david is on the phone from wisconsin, a state the romney campaign was hoping to get. good evening, david. independent line. caller: the biggest issue to me is the deficit and the debt. i don't feel that either candidate will address the
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problem effectively. i think they will continue to promote the bubble economy to make themselves look good. i voted for gary bronson, who i believe is willing to commit political suicide and address the problem with the fed and the funding of the bubble economy is and our national debt. host: many people thought this would be the year for a third- party candidate. that was not the case. there was support for third- party contenders but not the level we have seen in the past. my question is why. caller: i don't know. i think because we are in a recession, i think the stakes were too great to vote for a third-party candidate. perhaps they were more willing to settle than they would be during a good economy. i guess that is it. host: david, thanks for the call. molly on the republican line
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from indiana. good evening. caller: i am an 18-roll voter from a small town in indiana. host: i he to do this. i have to cut in. let's listen in to the podium. >> you know, 18 months ago, there was a lot of the political classes that were spouting a lot of information about the senate race in misery. -- missouri. they also, it is over. it is done. it is too red. there is no way that claire mccaskill can survive. you know what happened? you proved them wrong. [cheers and applause]
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with a stubborn determination, tenacity, and a refusal to give up, we showed the country what missouri is made of. [cheers and applause] now, i have to start. i have some many blessings from god, i cannot take them all off. i cannot name them all. i will start with the people on this stage. these are my children, my stepchildren, my siblings, their spouses, my husband. they are my rock. they are my foundation. they are there for me. and he puts up with a lot. [laughter] [cheers and applause] there is one person missing on
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this stage tonight, and i just got to tell you, mom, this one's for you. [cheers and applause] and the reason i know that this one is for my mom is because i actually believe when all the votes are counted something extraordinary will of happened. u.s. to understand this vote was called before any of the votes were counted. [cheers and applause] guess what? i think we finally won rural missouri. woo hoo! [cheers and applause] i also have to thank this
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amazing staff i worked with on this campaign. we have been at it for two years. yes. [cheers and applause] we have been going full bore for two years. this is such a team. every single part of this campaign, intellect, a great strategy, a work ethic that i am in awe of, a sense of togetherness, there were no egos, just a focus on what we had to get done. i cannot name the mall. they are truly special. i have got to tell you. i have to give a shout out to cory and adrian. they are the campaign managers who did a great job. ok. let's get to the meat and the bone. that would beam you -- be you.
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that could be all of you and what you did. thousands of volunteers across the state, you decided you wanted nothing more complicated than your government to reflect your values. [cheers and applause] i stand in all -- awe of your commitment, your patriotism, and your determination that you were going to have a voice in the united states senate that made you proud. [cheers and applause] i also stand here in acknowledgment of the fact that i did not get every vote today. there were hundreds of thousands of votes cast for congressman akin. he graciously congratulated me.
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i recognize his years of public service and his patriotism. [applause] but all the people, the votes i did not get today, here is my message to them. i go to washington first as a missourian. i go first as a missourian. i will work across the aisle in a bipartisan way to find the compromises to solve problems for every missouri family, not just the families of those that voted for me. [cheers and applause] along the way, i had the incredible honor of meeting people that were perfect strangers to me that greeted me like long-lost friends.
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there is nothing that makes me prouder than complete strangers walking up to me, grabbing my hand, and giving me a word of encouragement. whether it was the elderly woman of the reports that grabbed my hand and said, ms. claire, i'm going to fight hard for you, or the means man at the office building who shouted to me as i walked through the lobby, we got your back, it is those people, it is those assaults of the earth -- sault of your wonderful people -- salt of the earth wonderful people that i will vote for with -- that i will fight for with everything i have got.
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this was an extraordinary campaign for so many reasons. the results are astounding. now, i want all of you to own it. you deserve it. you did it. god bless you. and thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪ ["signed, sealed, delivered" playing] >> senator mccaskill declaring victory against todd akin. the democrats will maintain control of the u.s. senate. republicans control of the house of u.s. representatives, one of the democratic senators is mark warner of virginia as he welcomes his new colleague, his former lieutenant governor, tim kaine, who defeated george allen in the senate race. senator mark warner with tim
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kaine. >> a man who virginians shows because they know he would work across the aisle to get things done. let me present to you now your friend and mine, the next junior senator, tim kaine. [cheers and applause]
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♪ [cheers and applause] >> wow. what a crowd. it is -- thank you all so much. thank you all so much. it is a great night to be a
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virginian. [cheers and applause] in 2008, -- [chanting "tim kaine"] thank you. what a great crowd. you know, in 2008, virginia made some wonderful history by sending a fiscally responsible former governor to the united states senate in helping to put barack obama in the white house. [cheers and applause] well, the night is still young, but thanks to you, we are already halfway there to doing
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it again tonight. [cheers and applause] actually, we are more than halfway there. nbc just called the presidential race. [cheers and applause] [frenzied cheers and applause] four more years. thanks for sending that note up.
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so -- geez. that was great. [cheers and applause] so, we still, i guess, have a little bit to find out how the va number goes. nbc called the nation for president obama. thank you again. you guys look great. thank you so much. four more years! [chanting "four more years!"] this is big, big. you know, this road, this road,
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on this campaign, started 19 months ago, 581 days ago. when i kicked off the campaign from the steps of my back porch just a few miles from here. over 19 months, we have traveled more than 60,000 miles. we were joined by an unprecedented 50,000 grassroots supporters. juppe ofan -- [cheers and applause] and even though we face more negative ads from secretly funded outside groups than any other campaign in the country except the president, we were able to overcome the influence of the negative ads and prove once again the strength of people power, grass-roots
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campaigning. [cheers and applause] what it means, folks. here is what it means. our victor to regard victory tonight proves that it is the number of people who stand with you, -- our victory tonight proves that it is the number of people who stand with you, not the number of people who write a check. [cheers and applause] and tonight, and tonight, we also proved that virginians are ready to keep moving forward with leaders committing to finding common ground to help strengthen the middle class in the entire nation. let me just take a moment to recognize my opponent, george allen. i want to thank him for his
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years, more than 20-plus years, of elected service to virginia. [applause] i want to thank his wife susan, who is every bit as vigorous and effective a campaigner. while george and i disagreed on many issues, the former governor -- we both share a deep love of this commonwealth and this country. now, the election is over. [cheers and applause] and, and for as hard as the 19- month campaign is, now is the hard work. it is time for all of us who love this country to come together and find common ground in our efforts to find solutions to our nation's common problems.
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[cheers and applause] and i'm optimistic that we can because that is the va way. working together, we will make fiscally responsible choices to reduce our deficit while keeping the economy strong and not shredding our nation pose a safety net. in fact, we will do it in a way where we make the key investments we need to make to grow the economy in a fair way. working together, we will invest in our small businesses and infrastructure to strengthen the middle class and create jobs. you know, there are entrepreneurs and small businesses that are the engine of growth in the nation and we have to do more to promote those true job-creators. working together. [cheers and applause] working together, we have got to win the global race. that means we have got to
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continue making those critical investments from early childhood to higher education to work force training to keep our nation positions ahead of all of our global competitors. but most of all, most of all, working together, we will remind virginians and all americans that our institutions of government can actually function again, that our leaders can set aside partisan politics and rise to the challenges that affect our nation. we know that as a commonwealth and as a country, we have been through tough times. we know that many of our friends and neighbors and family members are still struggling. but you know what? unlike some of the doom and gloom uc perpetrated out there, i am not pessimistic because we have been through tough times before and we have come out stronger for it. [cheers and applause] we all know this.
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tough times don't last. but tough people last. [cheers and applause] so, we're going to get a real strength in this commonwealth nation and continue to pave the way for a brighter future for all americans. i want to take a couple of minutes to offer some thanks. this is the hard part of the speech because as i look out and see so many of you, who i knew before i was even running for office, i could make this portion stretch on. i could actually start a good filibuster tradition that i might need to learn in this august body. let me give you some thanks. i want to start with the people closest to me, my own family. [cheers and applause] and let me just begin. i am one of those rare democrats
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who has won political hero and it is a republican. it is my father-in-law, mr. holden. [cheers and applause] my father-in-law played an amazingly important role in the life of this commonwealth and this country. he did it in a courageous way at a political cost to himself. at age 89, he is completely excited and satisfied about his political career. i am so glad -- [inaudible] [cheers and applause] everything that he did in politics was a team effort with his wife, my mother-in-law, give her a big round of applause. [cheers and applause]
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they have four wonderful children, one of, i am going to talk about in a second. they also have 10 grandkids. you know what? here is something about really cool about them. of the 10 grandchildren, three are now graduated from college. one is just finishing up a stint in the peace corps. one is training to be a navy seal. one is a lieutenant in the marine corps. that is public service. that has been passed down to the grandchildren's generation. i demonstrated my extreme intelligence and good judgment when i asked their daughter to marry me. and ann has been the best friend i could have, in a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother of our three children, and one of our
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children is on stage with us tonight -- [cheers and applause] we have our 28th anniversary on the 24th of november. i will also say that my wife is the best public servant in the kaine household. her work as a lawyer, a judge, reforming the foster care system, and now helping other states do the same is an everyday example for me. [cheers and applause] >> tim kaine thanking his wife and family, declaring victory tonight. live coverage from richmond. you've heard from senator like tim kaine, the former chair of the democratic national committee. results is still coming in from virginia, colorado, and nevada. the poles are still open in alaska. the president now expected to win in ohio.
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those 18 electoral votes. this is the scene from obama campaign headquarters at mccormick place in chicago. we expect that we will hear from the president and from governor romney later in the evening. in the meantime, more of your phone calls and more results all available on our website at c- span.org. we will go back to molly, who has been waiting patiently in indiana on the republican line. thanks for sticking with us. caller: hi. i will go ahead and reflect on the results today. i am quite concerned about what my future holds for my generation considering i am just 18 years old. the next four years are going to be interesting. i am just a little concerned and hope the government will choose for me rather than what i get to choose for my government and for my future. >> what does this mean for the future of the republican party with mitt romney losing tonight in the presidential bid? caller: i project of victory in
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the next four years. it will be easier to defeating on incumbent president. >> is there somebody you see in your party that will lead the gop in 2016? caller: um, no, not that i know of. it will be interesting. >> this is your first time voting, correct? caller: yes. >> molly, thanks so much for being with us. we will go to read from north dakota. democrats line. we look at the scene from obama headquarters as he wins reelection tonight with more than 270 electoral votes necessary. still results coming in from virginia and florida. in those two states at the moment, the president is still ahead. go ahead. caller: i am in the same boat as molly. i am also 18 years old. i don't think anything romney
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could have done would have matched what obama can do. i am paying $18,000 a year for college and obama wants to reduce the payment and the overall cost of tuition for college students. knowing that he will be in as a big relief to me knowing i will not have to shell out $18,000 a year out of my own pocket. >> independent line from san francisco. what is your reaction to the president's reelection? the republicans keeping the house, the democrats maintaining their control of the senate. caller: yes, hello. i was going to say something different, but after staying on the line for so long, i would just like to tip my hat to the american people who seem to have seen through the attempt
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to take a few divisive issues and use them to try and get people to vote against their own interests. their own economic interests. i think the country now is headed in the right direction. it may not be perfect, but i think that we are headed in the right direction. this was a turning point for the country. i believe that as we go forward, we will be able to resolve some of the horrendous problems that we faced, like the deficit. >> along those lines, what does this election mean for you personally, for the senate, the house, and the president? will there be a sense of bipartisanship moving ahead? should there be bipartisanship? caller: i certainly hope that
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people can -- that we can start to come together and try and solve the problems that we face. we have really difficult problems facing us with the deficit and with our environment. i think that there has been an effort with big money interests, a few wealthy individuals, and a few corporations who have thrown huge amounts of money to try and use a few divisive issues to try and push this country in a certain direction that i think would be devastating to the country. >> thanks for the call from san francisco. our phone lines will continue to be open. we do expect to fear from the president, reelected tonight with 274 electoral votes compared to 201 for mitt romney.
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states to be decided, nevada, colorado, florida, virginia, and alaska. the president has been reelected in massachusetts, elizabeth warren winning with 53% of the vote against scott brown. this is a democratic pickup that allows the democrats to maintain control of the senate. earlier tonight from boston, elizabeth warren declaring victory. ♪ ♪
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["aint' no stopping us now" playing] [cheers and applause] all right. all right. all right. all right.
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no, no. thank you. thank you. this -- [cheers and applause] this victory belongs to you. [cheers and applause] you did this. for every family that has been squeezed and hammered, we're going to fight for a level playing field and we are going to put people back to work. that is what we're going to do. yes. [cheers and applause] to all the small business owners who are tired of a system rigged against them, we are going to hold the big guys accountable. [cheers and applause] yeah.
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to all the seniors who deserve to retire with the security they earned, we're going to make sure your medicare and social security benefits are protected and that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. that's right. [cheers and applause] and to all the young people who did everything right -- [cheers and applause] who did everything right and are drowning in debt, we are going to invest in you. [cheers and applause] to all of those service members and your families who have fought so hard for us, we're going to fight for you.
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that's right. that's right. i love you. [cheers and applause] and all the women across massachusetts -- [cheers and applause] to all the women across massachusetts who are working your tails off, you had better believe we will fight for equal pay for equal work. [cheers and applause] to all of you, this is your night. this is your victory.
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yes. this -- [chanting] this was a campaign that broke records, raising more money from small donors than any senate campaign in the history of this country. [cheers and applause] and, knocking on more doors than any senate race in massachusetts. an amazing campaign. let me be clear. i didn't build that. you built that. [cheers and applause]
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and you did what everyone thought was impossible. you taught us a scrappy, first- time candidate can get in the ring and win. you took on the powerful wall street banks and special interests and you let them know you want a senator who will be out there fighting for the middle-class all of the time. [cheers and applause] and despite the odds, you elected the first woman senator -- [cheers and applause]
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thank you. [chanting "warren"] yeah, i love you, too. have to tell you this was a tough campaign. senator brown and i had our differences, but he and i just spoke and he sent his congratulations. i hope you'll join me in thanking senator brown for his service to the commonwealth. [applause] we wish scott and gail and their
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daughters nothing but the best. nothing but the best. i also want to speak to senator brown's supporters. the message you sent was clear. we need leaders in washington who are willing to break the partisan gridlock and work regardless of party. i know i did not earn your vote, but i promise i will work to earn your support. [cheers and applause] there are many people to thank tonight. i am going to start with my husband bruce.
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i also want to thank my kids, my beautiful grandkids, my brothers, my in-laws, my cousins, my nieces and nephews here in massachusetts and all across the country. senator kerrey, governor patrick, mayor, thank you for your supports, for your encouragement, and most of all for your leadership. you were real fighters in my corner and i appreciate that. ut it's what you do every day for the people of our state that is truly remarkable. thank you all. thank you. [applause] and to our congressional delegation, to all of our mayors
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and legislators, council members and sheriffs, to the nurses, to the fire fighters, to the teachers, to the carpenters, to laborers, two men and women of the building trades, and to all of our brothers and sisters in the labor movement -- [cheers and applause] i love you, too. to the lgbt community. yes. [cheers and applause] yes. groups.omen's [cheers and applause] to the environmental groups. [cheers and applause] to the ministers, i'm so
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grateful. to the credit unions. yes. to the more than 700 small businesses supporting us, to the student organizers, to the democratic town committees, all of you, all of you, all of you have had my back, and i promise you, i will have your back. i promise. i want to thank the single best grass-roots army that any state has ever seen.
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[cheers and applause] for every volunteer who knocked on doors, who stood in the rain and held signs, who talked to their neighbors, and to my incredible staff that worked more hours than i thought was humanly possible -- [cheers and applause] thank you, thank you, thank you, all of you. and to everyone who shared your hopes and dreams with me and put your faith in my ability to fight for you, i want you to know this. i will never forget. i will always carry your stories
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with me in your heart. i won't just be your senator. i will be your champion. [cheers and applause] i promise. ok. so, tonight is not over because we still have a lot of celebrating to do, yes? [cheers and applause] but i want to close by noting that it was exactly 50 years ago tonight that senator ted kennedy was first elected to the united states senate. [cheers and applause]
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we miss his passion, his commitment, his energy, and his fight for working families. that night, 50 years ago, he said that he would dedicate all his strength and will to serve you in the united states senate. for 47 years, he lived up to that promise. tonight, i pledge to do the same. thank you. [cheers and applause] thank you. [cheers and applause]
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>> elizabeth warren, democratic senator let from massachusetts, giving her victory speech. all the networks and the associated press report that president obama has enough electoral college votes to take a second term in office. here is how it is playing out in a battle ground states. colorado just called by the associated press, president obama victorious with 51% of the vote, mitt romney trailing, 47%. florida, the associated press has not yet called this. president obama, 50% of the vote, mitt romney, 49%. 96% of precincts reporting. iowa has been called, president obama 52% of the vote. let's go to nevada. western state, not yet called. the 0% of pretax reporting. president obama, 55% -- 0% of
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precincts reporting. president obama, 55%. new hampshire, president obama. north carolina, mitt romney. the ap has called ohio for president obama. and pennsylvania, also president obama, 53% of the vote. battleground state of virginia, neck and neck, 49% for each of the candidates. and wisconsin, a key battleground state we're watching tonight, president obama in the lead with 52% of the vote. the associated press does say that president obama has enough electoral votes for a second term in office. for more information and up to date results, you can go to our website, c-span.org. >> this tweet cannot a few minutes ago from barack obama. it says simply "four more
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years." a photograph of him hugging michelle obama from the barack obama twitter page. ascend the say t -- send us a tweet. the numbers of the bottom of your screen are the electoral college numbers based on projections. as you were from the other networks, president reelected to another four-year term. this is the scene live at mccormick place in chicago. thousands gathering inside tonight for the president. we expect to hear from him shortly. we also expect to hear from mitt romney as well in boston, massachusetts. georgia is on the phone from missouri, a republican line. we get your reaction from the president's reelection tonight. good evening. caller:hi, how are you? >> fine, thank you. what do you think? caller: i voted for mitt romney and ryan because they stand for biblical values, religious
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freedoms, they are against abortion, and i am against abortion and gay rights. this country was founded on religious values and that is what made this country great. they are righteous people. i want my friend, senator ridge, who ran for missouri state senate in district 29, to know that i did what she asked me to do by making my voice heard over the tv that i stand for religious values and i stand for righteousness. our country needs to turn back to god and stand up for biblical values. >> let me ask you a question. congressman akin lost. mitt romney losing the
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presidential race. why? what does it tell you about the republican party? caller: i voted for claire mccaskill. i voted a little bit mixed. i voted for what i believed was right. >> thank you for the call. where is read springs, by the way? caller: that is about 33 miles north of springfield, missouri. >> thank you for calling tonight on c-span. from new orleans, democrats line. good evening. caller: how are you? >> go ahead, please. you are on the air. give us your reaction to the results tonight. caller: i am very excited. i think obama has done a wonderful job before. i think, you know, me personally, i think that he is, you know, deserves it.
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we need somebody that will stand up for us and we also need someone that will do what we need them to do. >> thanks for the call. we have this on our twitter page. #c-span2012. you can watch what is happening live at the romney headquarters in boston and at the obama headquarters at mccormick place in chicago, also, a state-by- state breakdown of the vote and the house and the senate races, including those from your congressional district. the headline tonight, the democrats maintaining control of the u.s. senate and republicans keeping control of the u.s. house, the president reelected to another four-year term. tiffany is on the line from pittsburgh. good evening. caller: i am so excited that
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obama, democrat party has won tonight. i am shedding tears for him, and i am just so excited. >> what does this mean for the next four years for the president and for the democratic party? caller: i hope they can move forward and i also hope that the government can, like, stand their ground and work with him, and the democratic party, you know, i just hope they can sit down all together and resolve certain solutions. >> thanks for the call. cnn declaring mitt romney winning north carolina by a couple of percentage points. the vote is still too close to call in a couple of other states. the president beyond the 270 electoral votes needed to win reelection. frank is on the phone from texas, republican line. good evening.
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caller: can you hear me fine? >> we can. would you vote for today? caller: i voted for ron paul. i'm being honest with you. i believe in morals and principles and ron paul is the only one speaking actual truths. i am shocked and appalled to see that the american people gave up on our dreams and pushed us into more austerity, buying into the federal reserve, killing innocent americans overseas with countless wars. mitt romney was not going to do anything different. i can tell you true. that is my honest opinion. that is why i stuck with ron paul. this idea of government bailouts and government's going to save us has been doing nothing but continue to destroy what the american dream is. the american dream has always been built on personal responsibilities, self-reliance,
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ingenuity, the competitive spirit. you can see that that has died in our culture and in our american life. to see that everybody was going to swing toward obama and give this man another chance to drive us into a point where -- i work 40 hours a week, but the dude that does nothing for living in gets welfare and food stamps and unemployment checks makes the same amount of money as me? >> thanks for the call. we go to the democrats' line. charles from erie, pennsylvania . you are on the air. give us your reaction to the returns tonight, including in pennsylvania. caller: yes. i am happy that obama has been
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elected another four years. i am happy that we're doing better and it will be so much better because the health care passes in two years and it is a much better for the economy because we're going to get more jobs. he is helping those who are poor. he is helping those who do not have as much as others. i'm just happy. >> ok. thanks for the call. the popular vote is essentially tied right now. of course, the electoral college vote is what counts. the president now with more than 270 and still some states to come in, including the final results from florida, where the president is still ahead. keep track of all of this at c- span.org. on the republican line, we go to amanda, joining us from ohio. what was it like today when you went to the polls? did you vote early in ohio? caller: i went today. >> give us a sense of what it
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was like at the polling location. caller: it is a small town, so not too bad. everybody knows everybody. you were in and you're out, pretty much. >> would you vote for? caller: mitt romney. >> what does that tell you about the future of the republican party? caller: his defeat is really upsetting. he has done a great thing in our community. he came to the mine and we were all there. a big part of that, american energy corp.. i'm worried about obama being reelected. we have a lot of friends who are coal miners. my husband is a coal miner. it worries me because all of the- -- negative activity he gets. >> you sound disappointed, amanda. caller: i really am. it is my husband's job. it is my friends jump.
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they risk their life every day. >> thanks for phoning in tonight on c-span. our next call is from west virginia. next is kristol, independent line. go ahead, you are on the air. we will try barbara joining us from -- we will go to bonnie from wyoming. go ahead, republican line. caller: yes. i think you guys are pushing it professed. they're supposed to be 1 million votes that have already been counted in ohio. i think you are all going to have to apologize. it will please me if you did. you are going way too fast. just because you're democrats does not mean that you can do this. >> by the way, we are not doing anything except telling you what the facts are in terms of the results coming in. all the networks have declared the president has been reelected. caller: they haven't.
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no, they haven't. they are saying. they are backtracking. they say there are 1 million votes in ohio that has not been even counted. they are saying that you are way ahead of yourselves. i hope you have to backtrack because you are lying to us. i don't like that. >> we are not lying to you. all the networks, fox, cnn, abc, cbs have all declared the president has been reelected based on the electoral college vote. as the returns continue to come in, the president winning in new hampshire and the -- and iowa. there are pulls out west including california, washington state, and also winning in mexico. let's go to cleveland, ohio, democrats line. good evening. you are on the air.
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caller: my name is katila. >> if you could turn the volume down on your set, go ahead with your comments. caller: i was just calling to say, ok, i was just calling to say, wait to go, obama -- way to go, obama. >> independence seen -- independent scene. caller: i still have my hopes going. it seems it is a close campaign. it is possible for either party to win. my main issue on this is that it seems like people are concentrating way too much on the people's view on abortion and gay marriage than they're viewing the real ways they
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would, you know, run the country. >> ok. thanks for the call. we will continue to monitor obama headquarters in chicago and romney headquarters in boston. when they come to the podium, we will take you there live. now, more senate results. >> let's look at the results in the senate race that has been called by the associated press. arizona, the republican jeff flake is moving to the senate. a series of other senate races are too close to call. the ap has not declared them yet. montana, senator jon tester ahead 54%. let's go to nevada. next up, new mexico.
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the democrat, 52% of the vote. heather wilson, the republican, 45% of the vote. north dakota, republican, 50%. rick berg is slightly ahead in that race, with 91% reporting. in wisconsin, he democrat hit with 50% of the vote. the ap has not called the race yet. for more, go to our website, c- span.org. >> call in, using the numbers on your screen. on the republican line, richmond, virginia. good evening. are you with us? go ahead. you are on the air.
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>> basically, i was going to say, i voted for bush in 2000 and in 2004. i voted for mccain in 2008. barack obama, this time. i feel the republican party is going to face extinction. the demographics of this country are changing. i believe that what they have been talking about, giving tax breaks to the top 1%, and but the middle class struggle out here -- how those seven ideas the were experimented during eight years of george bush. he cut the upper tax from 45% to 35%. that added to the deficit, and paid for. for.paicd feel the republican party, the
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demographics are changing. latinos, african-americans, women, gays -- the war against women really got me. my wife really got me. i am a small-business owner in richmond, virginia. i like tax cuts. but you cannot cut your way out of a deficit. there is no way. you have to have revenue as well. i agree with the president. this is a mandate now. the president has a mandate now. i was in line for over three hours. there is a reason for that. >> thank you for the call. if you want to join the conversation on facebook, you can do so. the president is reelected. tell us your thoughts. you can do so at
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facebook.com/cspan. you can also send us a tweet, # cspan2012. >> so nice to talk to you at night instead of very early in the morning. >> nice to hear from you. >> when i was growing up, my wonderful parents taught me that money cannot buy friends or true love. money cannot buy good health, unless you are blessed with it to begin with. money certainly cannot buy class. tonight, we learned that money cannot buy an election. i am so pleased at the results tonight. congratulations to president and mrs. obama, and congratulations to the democrats and all progressives out there. thank you for allowing me to call. >> would you think the next four years will look like, with a divided government? essentially, nothing has changed. the democrats keep the senate.
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the republicans keep the house. the president is reelected. >> i think there are enough people out there. it is proved in the pudding that people have come to understand that president obama, in addition to all the things on the table he had to contend with -- he had to contend with the most obstructionist congress in the history of the united states. i am thinking that perhaps, even regardless of the fact that thing from not changed that much, he i think the attitudes on the part of republicans in congress will change. i think they are changing now. i think they will start reaching across the aisle. >> we are told that congressman paul ryan is on route 2 campaign headquarters in boston. once, congressman ryan and mitt romney deliver remarks, we will go to that live. >> joining us on our republican
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line from san antonio, texas. >> the reason i am voting for obama is because i am tired of the idea that obama is not doing this or that. obama is doing everything on the table, but needs the help. all these people being selfish and reheat, deciding the rich people get this and that -- they need to know where they came from. obama knows where he came from, and he is standing up for us. without him, we do not even know what we are going to get. now, he is here and he is standing up. i am standing beside him, making sure that the people who need the help, they are hoping him, right beside him. >> on the twitter page, you are saying, "i am popping the champagne." on the republican line, from
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texas. elizabeth, are you with us? we will go on to brooklyn, in columbus, ohio, on our democratic line. >> i just wanted to say congratulations to obama and his family, and go obama. >> we will go next to miami, florida. >> i just wanted to basically say congratulations, obama. i am proud to be a first-time voter. i think things are really going to change in four years. it is his second time in. i think, to the point that he is not running for reelection, the republicans in congress will --
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they will stop stalling everything he is trying to do, and try to give the president a chance to change things. >> steve think this will be different? >> i definitely do. this election had a lot of name- calling, trying to attack the other candidates. people have noticed that, and have reacted negatively toward the. obviously, romney did not win the election. i think people are looking for the positive things they will do for the country, instead of, this guy is going to do this. things like that. i think it is a step forward. >> we are joined from nebraska on the independent line.
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thanks for waiting. >> thank you for taking my call. i am so happy tonight. >> what are you happy? >> i am very happy that mr. obama won early and decisively. i think it is good for the country. i think it overcomes all the ugliness that has been thrown at this president. i think he has shown that he has perseverance and class, and he will be what we need for the next four years. >> let me ask what i asked the previous caller. what you think the next four years will look like? >> he does not have to run again. he has to use the bully pulpit more effectively. he has to do what roosevelt did, and appealed to the people. for the last four years, and for the whole time he ran, this has been really ugly. i think we are fed up with it. i think we want to move ahead. i think we want to see progress. i think the republicans, if they
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want to start winning some elections, will have to start looking like they are not just a bunch of obstructionists. >> thank you for the call. we will go to the republican line. your state has yet to be called, but the state is currently ahead by about 50,000 votes in the sunshine state. your reaction to the results tonight? >> i can tell you i am not very happy. i did vote for mitt romney. i wish he had won the election. >> would you think he lost? -- why do you think he lost? >> i cannot tell you that. i do hope the next four years that people do try to work together in this country, because it is not about this party or that party. it is about this country. i am tired of democrats saying we are obstructionists. we are not.
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both parties need to start working together for this country. this is our country. it is not yours or mine. it is our country. we need to start working together. with obamacare, on my insurance policy, my children are covered until the age of 30. with that, i do not know if my employer is going to drop my insurance, because it is cheaper for them to pay the penalty than to continue to pay for my insurance. for all those people looking for a free handout, you know what? that is great. i do not have a free handout. i work hard for my money. if i want to redistribute it to charities or people i think are worth it, that is my opportunity to do that, not the government telling me what i should be doing with my money. we will see you in another four years. i do hope we all work together in this country. >> do you think that will happen? do you think democrats and
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republicans can bridge the divide? >> i do not see why you cannot. this is really an opportunity. why do you think immigrants keep coming to this country? now i have opened another hole. what i am saying is, we are a country of arrogance. we are hard working. we want a place in this country. my family came in the 1800's and 1700's. my husband's family came over in 1960, from cuba. they have worked hard for every single dollar. the have overcome adversity. so has the rest of their extended family. they are hardworking people. i hope the parties can be. you cannot keep doing this to us. the republicans are not any more obstructionist than democrats. they all play the game. stop playing the game. this country can be great, and
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we can move on. the name-calling and character slaughter is not the way to go for those parties anymore. >> the electoral college, with the president at 290 electoral votes. mitt romney at 201. two states that look for the republicans, the and president holding on to those other states. the map will look similar to what we saw four years ago. >> let us look at some unique congressional races from around the country, where an incumbent is facing an incumbent because of redistricting. here is california's 30th district. habra german is ahead of howard berman. 59% going to sherman at this point. in iowa, hit a republican is
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leading. and ohio's 16th. the republican is ahead of "sutton, a democrat. california's 44th district representative, 62% of the vote. congresswoman laura richardson, the democrat as well. 45% of the vote against jeff landry, trimming with 30% of the vote. find out about all the latest race results on our website, c- span.org. >> we will continue with your phone calls as we await mitt romney and the president speaking before, their respective supporters. we have a call on the democrat'' line. did you vote today? what were the lines like? what was the turnaround?
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>> it was pretty good. it was pretty smooth. everybody went in there positive. basically everyone out here voted for obama. including myself. i would like to shed some light that the last four years was not obama's fault. look at the hand he was built. he stepped into, you know, a big hole. he actually did open some doors, business was. there is all types of opportunity. everybody has computers, with the grants and things like that. he has always been talking about creating jobs. we have creative minds. we need to use it. >> why was the president reelected? what did he offer you that mitt romney did not?
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>> he was not trying to take things away. i am a college student who is disabled visually, and visually impaired. i do depend on food stamps. i do receive ssi. i am in college for business and accounting. he is not taking things from us. mitt romney let it be known, just like one of your previous callers made a statement about, he welfare situation. there are some of us that are on it that are working towards getting off of it. they need to stop categorizing us. as far as i am concerned, and democrats are for the people. republicans are from themselves. >> thank you for calling. next up is josh, independent line, from philadelphia. >> good evening. i would like to say that i am very pleased with the results so far. it is a great sense after long
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hours of knocking on doors and making phone calls finally paying off. >> thanks for the call. next up, we go to a call from mesa, arizona, republican line. >> i would like to say how disappointed i am with how this turned out. i feel like anybody can quit their job and live off of our government, and live off of middle-class people. i think it is horrible. >> as you look back at this campaign, what mom and do you think defined mitt romney? why do you think he lost tonight? >> honestly, i think it is all the people living off our government that voted for him. i think we have more people living of our government and the working class. -- than the working class. i think everybody is looking at, what can obama give us?
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>> in wisconsin, tammy baldwin is winning. live coverage from wisconsin. she is saying to supporters -- this is a democratic seat for wisconsin voters. >> thank you. wow. [applause] thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you, everybody.
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tonight, we have won a huge victory for wisconsin. [applause] and it is that a pull for wisconsin's middle-class that has been what this has all been about, since this journey began, 14 months ago. everywhere i have gone in our beautiful state, people have told me they want a senator who will listen to the middle-class when they need help. a senator who will stand on the side of the middle class.
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a senator who will wake up every morning, and fight for the middle-class. they have told me that they want an economy in which everyone plays by the same rules, and everyone does their fair share. they have told me that they want a level playing field, one where china cannot achieve our workers and millionaires cannot dodge taxes, and wall street, hurt our economy with risky gambling. they have told me that they want to pay down our debt without shortchanging our future.
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they have told me that they want to be able to rely on the guarantees of medicare and social security, not just today, but for future generations. most of all, he have told me that the special interests have too much power in washington. it is time for the people's voice to be heard. come january, your voice will be heard in the united states senate.
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i am honored and humbled and grateful, and i am ready to get to work. i am ready to stand with president barack obama. and ready to fight for wisconsin paul of middle-class. middle class.in's
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i am well aware of the i will have the honor to be wisconsin's first woman u.s. senator. [applause] and i -- and i am well aware that i will be the first openly gay member -- [applause]
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but i did not run -- but i did not run to make history. iran to make a difference. -- i ran to make a difference. a difference in the lives of families struggling to find work, and pay the bills. a difference in the lives of students worry about that. -- worried about debt, and seniors word about their retirement security -- worried about their retirement security. a difference in the lives of veterans who fought for us and
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need somebody fighting for them and their families. a difference in the lives of entrepreneurs trying to build a business, and working people trying to build some economic security. but in choosing me to tackle those challenges, the people of wisconsin have made history. and i cannot tell you how grateful i am for the trust you have placed in me, and all i can do is work as hard as i can to keep that trust.
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i know that many of the people listening to this speech tonight may not have voted for me, but i'm want you to know that i will stand up for you, and i ask you to work with me to move our state forward. here is the promise i want to make you. i will be a senator for all of wisconsin. our state has had some incredible leaders from both political parties, and all across the theological spectrum. -- the idiological spectrum.
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i have wonderful examples. one is herb kohl. when he first ran, his slogan was "nobody's senator but yours." over the course of his service, the slogan became a typo, one that he has earned every day that he has served -- a title, one he has earned every day he has served the state of wisconsin. i am so grateful to have had his support throughout this campaign, he and humbled to carry his deep commitment to public service. i also want to thank, thompson for his life in public service. before i do, i would like you to indulge me in an acknowledgement
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on a very personal level. first of all, i just got off of the phone with him. he was very cordial, and congratulated me, and wished me well, and wished all of us well. i want to tell you a quick little story about tommy thompson, on a very personal level. i still remember the first time i ever met tommy. i was 30 years old, a freshman member of the wisconsin assembly. he was greeting new members of the legislature at the governor's mansion. we did not talk politics. i explained to the governor that i was joe baldwin's daughter, and i had never met him before my father passed away. his face lit up. he had known my father in college. he would delight in sharing some
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small remembrances every time i saw him. that meant the world to me. tommy and i did not always agree. in fact, in this campaign, we did not agree on much. but there can be no doubt that he shares my love, and all of our love, for wisconsin. tonight, i want to reach out to his supporters, and ask them to join me in standing up for our belief that we are all in this together. make no mistake -- i am a proud wisconsin progressive.
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which means i believe in holding the powerful accountable. i believe in fair play. i believe that when people are struggling, you do not talk down to them. you helped lift them up. and i believe in wisconsin workers, and a work ethic that i will fight for every day. but i also believe that we can only move forward if we move forward together. [applause] this has been an incredible journey, one that has shown me the best our state has to offer. i have watched wisconsin workers
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put the "made in america" label on food for our soldiers, on ships, on engines. i have met with potato farmers in plover. i have eaten walleye in bonn the lack -- fond du lac. i have eaten the best creamcups at the state fair. i am grateful to so many people tonight. i want to thank the people of the second congressional district for giving me the honor -- [applause] for giving me the honor of serving you for the last 14 years. and i want to congratulate mark for his terrific job
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representing -- [applause] it has been a privilege to serve in the house of representatives, and i had a hard-working, dedicated team of congressional staff, who do incredible work in my name, but on your behalf. led by my dear friend and chief of staff, i want to recognize these amazing people. i am grateful for all the elected officials and public servants who stood with me throughout this campaign, and in particular, and want to single
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out glenn more. -- moore, who famously reminds me, whenever she sees me, "i was for you before you were for you." and i also want to thank russ feingold for campaigning with me on my behalf for the last 14 months. i have never been part of the campaign organization as amazing as this one. uh, i want to thank my friend and campaign manager, karen joy hansen, -- johannsen. i want to thank her for hoping
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the build this team of determined, inspirational, and incredible stuff supporters, volunteers. in has been incredible. i am grateful for the campaign. you have all heard a lot about my grandparents, who raised me, and especially my grandmother. she was born in 1906, before women had the right to vote, and saw her grandmother elected to the house of representatives. -- saw her granddaughter elected to the house of representatives. i know she would be proud tonight. i am happy, and so fortunate to have with me tonight, my mother,
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pam. among all the things i could tell you about her, she had the prophetic wisdom to name me tammy. how could she know that one day there would be headlines reading "tammy vs tommy"? i am also joined by my aunts and , sarah, melinda, and guy. [applause] i just want to thank my family
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for their love, support, and encouragement. tonight, a long journey comes to an end, but we know our work is just beginning. and whether you voted for me or not, whether tonight, you are celebrating a victory, or dealing with a defeat, he hoped that when we wake up tomorrow morning, we are ready to work, he ready to fight, ready to fight for our middle class, ready to keep our promises to our seniors, ready to have a level playing field for our workers, ready to make sure that everyone has a fair shot, ready to make our country stronger, more prosperous, and more equal.
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ready to do -- ready to do what wisconsin whites have done for generations -- stand together and move forward. thank you. >> representative tammy baldwin, now the senator elect from wisconsin. her margin of victory at this hour, three percentage points. she defeated former governor and former cabinet secretary tommy thompson. let us look at the balance of power, as the democrats maintain control of the u.s. senate. currently, the have 51 seats. right now, they have 49 seats,
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expected to pick up more. that would keep the democrats in control of the u.s. senate. rhino, republicans with 44 seats confirmed. two independents, those independents caucusing with the democrats. a couple of you weighing in on facebook. kathleen is saying the best man one and justice prevailed, referring to the president hu's reelection. and becky says it is a sad day for america. we go to mitt romney headquarters in boston. we have been expecting him to concede the race, but so far, he has not. why? >> a good question. there has been no concession, no communication we know of between the romney campaign and the obama campaign. mitt romney said, earlier today, that he had only written a victory speech. we do not know if that is what is holding him up.
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we are expecting him within the next half hour or so. >> the popular vote is going back and forth. the latest report of the associated press has the -- it has. the big difference is in the -- it has 49% and 49%. the big difference is in the electoral college. >> without a lively crowd in the early part of the night -- there was not much to be excited about fahrenheit -- excited about. you had fox news on tv, calling the race for barack obama. people were dispirited. then you had karl rove and some of the analysts on fox reporting that the romney campaign was not conceding. the crowd got lively at that
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point. there does seem to be a realization, as pretty much every network has called this race, that their candidate has lost. there is kind of a door atmosphere, among the crowd. >> the there was of margins -- the narrowest of margins. ohio, is essentially tied, but president obama was declared the winner. surprises in those results? >> a little bit. surprised that obama seems to be carrying them, but also surprised that it has been very close. if you look at the entire map, it seems barack obama is only losing two states, from what he carried for years ago, indiana and north carolina.
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the rest, he has either one or appears to be headed toward victory. -- has either won or appears to be headed toward victory. mitt romney -- he was able to carry the ball over the field, in the end. >> you have been covering the former massachusetts governor extensively. when you write the stories about why mitt romney lost, what would you include in that story? >> there were probably several moments they will look back on and regret. there is the 47%,. that seems to resonate. not responding earlier to the obama campaign attacks over the summer is another thing that allowed mitt romney to be branded, in the minds of voters. i think it is very hard for romney to combat that later on in the campaign. i think they did start to gather momentum. the past several weeks, for
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romney, have been very good, drawing big crowds. it did feel like there was a movement afoot at romney rallies that he did not have for much of his campaign. it appeared to be too little, too late, for them to overcome some of the obama campaign's effective moves over the summer. >> how an effective moves -- the possibility of picking up in wisconsin with paul ryan. that also did not happen. why? >> it maybe they did not spend enough time in wisconsin. they did send paul ryan there occasionally. mitt romney left for big stretches, where he was not in wisconsin. i think some of those factors may have heard them. -- hurt them. >> when "mother jones" release
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that 47% video, which came out in september, was at a defining moment in this campaign? >> with all the buildup to it, with the obama campaign casting mitt romney -- that video, in the minds of many voters, confirmed the attack. you had mitt romney himself saying things that could be portrayed the way the obama campaign has been portraying him for months. the campaign led the groundwork for that. it really hurt mitt romney. at a key moment, right after the conventions,, at a time when both campaigns were trying to gather momentum, and mitt romney was stymied from building on to anything, and had a week of trying to respond to that -- he did not seem to be able to regain his footing again until
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the first debate. >> we can see the people behind you speaking in hushed tones. as you have talked to people, what are they saying tonight? what are you learning this evening? >> there is a little bit of frustration. i talked to a female supporter who was upset at her fellow females, that they did not see things the way she did. there were young voters who feel like their future is at stake. they felt like their future was arrested before the election, and they are nervous now, going forward, about debt issues, things like that. it is a very subdued crowd. it has been that way pretty much all night. there was a brief moment, when fox news and, rover on, that gave them hope the election was not -- and karl rove were on that gave them the hope the election was not over. >> we are hoping that governor
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romney will speak to supporters in the next 10 minutes. he has already indicated he will not run for future public office. the stories look ahead to the future of the republican party. where does the gop go from here? >> we are already hearing people talk about needing to broaden their coalition. overwhelmingly, young people are voting for democrats. minorities, hispanics. growing areas of the american population are voting for the democratic party right now. i think there is a recognition, on the part of republicans, that they have to do something to attract those voters. otherwise, they will be in for more troubling elections in the years ahead. i think there will be a lot of discussion in the and -- in the republican party over how they want to handle things. there are also criticisms from the right that mitt romney was too moderate. over the next few months, and
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essentially years, there will be issues the republicans have to work out. >> with the polls going into this election saying it was a dead even race, the popular vote is essentially tied. >> the popular vote does seem to be that way. the obama campaign was very effective in the crucial battleground states, in driving up their votes in the key areas and the key demographics you just mentioned. getting people to the polls in ohio, in florida, in virginia. i think there is something to be said for the ground game. we talk about a ground game a lot. it played a big factor tonight, it seems, in some of those states, even though mitt romney is close on the popular vote. >> , i'm going to ask you to turn around and give us your best estimate. how many people are left inside the convention center in boston?
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>> probably several thousand. it has grown in the but as the night progressed. the romney campaign had set up a war room, with about 800 people in it, that was a couple of miles away from this headquarters. those people are now showing up. it is getting to be a little bit bigger of the crowd. several thousand remain. i have not seen a huge amount who left. most people are maybe not as excited as they otherwise would be. they seem to still be here, waiting to hear from mitt romney. >> think you for stopping by with us. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> in terms of the numbers in other key races, some new information. >> here are some contested congressional races that have not been called by the associated press that are gathering a lot of attention. michele bachman, minnesota's
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sixth. she is tied neck and neck to retain her seat. jim graves, the democrat, giving her a run for her money. in florida's 18th district, allen west, the incumbent, is the thing a strong challenge from patrick murphy, the democrats. we will go to new hampshire. the democrat, 49%, ahead of representative frank. let us go to new york state, and the 18th district. the incumbent is trailing the challenger. moving into a couple of races that have often called where challengers have run, chris collins, the republican, 51%, defeating the democratic incumbent. the incumbenth, is falling behind her challenger. santa fe, the democrat has 53%
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of the vote. he was elected to congress, but lost his seat. the district has changed, and he will come back to congress. you can follow all of our results on our website, c- span.org. >> the new york times is confirming that mitt romney will concede the race tonight. what is next for the republicans? what will a second term look like for president obama? a new congress that is essentially stays the same. the republicans keep the house. the democrats maintain control of the senate. john is joining us from upper marlboro, maryland. what are your thoughts? >> i am a college student. i am reading obama is giving college students opportunity that mitt romney could not
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afford. mitt romney was all about the upper class and middle-class people. it is still going to be the same. the republicans are going to try to stop obama from passing bills. i am concerned about financial aid and stuff,, and our debts. how is president obama boyd to fix that for us? >> we will go to george next in texas, republican line. go ahead, please. george, what is your reaction to the results of the president is reelected? we will try it one more time for george. are you with us? >> i am not george. i am paulette. and i am not in texas. i am in washington state. >> please go on the air. >> i am not a republican.
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i did vote democrat when i was very young. i guess you could say i was a democrat, but i do not really. i am kind of disappointed with obama winning. there is so much work that has to be done in this country, not just by governments coming together, not just by republicans versus democrats. we have to stop segregating ourselves and putting labels on each other, and putting each other down. we have to come to gather as the community. we have to start thinking about the big picture. i am not a tree hugger. i do believe we have accountability for what we put into the air. we should know what goes into our stomachs. we should be able to say no to something and not have a fear that we are going to be locked into a prison. i voted how i felt, for what my
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beliefs are. >> based on all of that, do you think things will change? >> i think things could change if people would start thinking about things in the perception of how each other, being humanistic instead of looking down and saying, you have a disability. you are collecting from the government. put all those things aside. forget about your egos. start thinking about what really matters, like clean air, water, food, kids having a good education, people unplugging themselves from technology and enjoying what god gave us, not discriminating against each other because we have a love for the same sex. the bible is the bible, and whatever. when we start separating ourselves, and creating all of these ideologies and crazy
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things, disingenuous behaviors and corruption, all of that stuff does not matter. money is not the object, in the game of life. >> thank you for the call of the common. it has been confirmed that president obama and governor romney have spoken. we are keeping an eye on campaign headquarters in boston. the next and that will happen is the governor comes out, thank his supporters, and concedes the race. essentially tied in the popular vote, with a slight edge to the president. the president now has 303 electrical votes -- electoral votes. all of the results are available at c-span.org. as soon as we hear from governor romney, we will take you there live. the president is at mccormick place in chicago, where his campaign is the ring this
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evening. we are joined from columbus, ohio, on the democrats' line. >> a thank you for taking my call. i wanted to make a few points. i will be brief. the 47%, at -- i was extremely offended by that. before i lost my address, i was able to vote for obama. no, i am living in my car. i have been working since i was 16. i am not on food stamps. i want to keep working. because of obama, i believe i am able to go to school. i start in january, with a potential to go to law school. i think mitt romney lost a lot of people in columbus because of that 47% quote. >> we will take you to boston, where governor mitt romney is expected to enter the stage momentarily to concede the race.
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the president has been reelected to the second four year term. live coverage is continuing on c-span and c-span radio. >> please welcome governor mitt romney. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you, my friends. thank you so very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory. his supporters and his campaign
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also deserve congratulations. i wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady, and their daughters. this is a time of great challenges for america. i pray the president will be successful in guiding our nation. [applause] i want to thank paul ryan for all he has done for our campaign. [applause] and for our country. besides my wife, hit paul is the best choice i have ever made. and i trust that his intellect and his hard work, and his commitment to principle, will continue to contribute to the good of our nation. i also want to thank ann, a love of my life. -- the love of my life.
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she would have been a wonderful first lady. [applause] she has been that and more to me and to our family, and to the many people she has touched with her compassion and care. i think my son's for their tireless work on the behalf of the campaign, and think their wives and children for taking up the slack as their husbands and dads have spent so many weeks away from home. [applause] i want to thank the dedicated campaign team. they have made an extraordinary just for me, but for the country we love. to you tonight, and to the team across the country -- the volunteers, fund-raisers, donors, surrogates.
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i do not think there is an effort that can compare with what you have done these past few years. thank you so much. thanks for all the hours of work, for the calls, for the speeches and appearances, for the resources, and the prayers. you gave the plea from yourselves and performed magnificently. you have been the best we could have imagined. you humbled us. the nation is at a critical point. which cannot risk of partisan posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work. we citizens have to rise to the occasion. we look to our teachers and professors. we count on you to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery. we look to our pastors, priests, rabbis, and counselors of all kinds, he to whom advance the
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principles of charity, honesty, integrity, and family. we look to our parents. everything depends on the success of our homes. we looked to job creators of all kinds. we are counting on you to invest, to higher, to step forward. we look to democrats and republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics. i believe in america. i believe in the people of america. [applause] i ran for office because i am concerned about america. this election is over, but our principles in door. i believe in the principles on
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which this nation was founded, the only guide to a resurgent economy and a new greatness. like so many of you, paul and i have left everything on the field. we have given our all to this campaign. i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction. but the nation chose another leader so ann and i join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation. thank you and fwod bless america. you guys are the best! thank you so much! thank, guys. [applause]
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[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [applause]
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[applause]
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>> with that, 17 months after his campaign began in new hampshire, former massachusetts governor mitt romney, who ran in 2008, losing the nomination to john mccain and losing in his campaign against the president, with 203 electoral vote exeared to 303 for the president. we saw congressman paul ryan on the stage with him along member os they have ryan and romney families. congressman ryan did win re-election to his seat in wisconsin. here's a look at the results there. 58% compared to 48% from his democratic challenger. the question is whether he'll come back as chair of the house budget committee or another leadership position in the next congress. but again, the republicans keeping control of the house. the democrats maintaining control of the u.s. senate. next up, we hear if the president. he is in chicago, mccormick place. we're told the motorcade left a short while ago from the fairmont hotel in chicago. once he's on the stage, along
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with vice president biden. we'll go there live. in the meantime, heath is on the line. what does this mean for the republican party? what's next for the g.o.p.? >> they have to regroup and not allow the democrats to sugar coat everything like they have done since the kennedy era. and get people to understand that you can't continue giving everything away to appease them for votes. like they have for so many generations after generations. >> why do you think mitt romney lost? what do you attribute it to? >> why did he lose? >> uh-huh. >> well, it's hard to beat a society that's been on --
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there's so many people that democrats have gave out and gave out since the kennedy era, all right, there's so many greater numbers that will vote for democrats because they know that the democrats will give them what they want to get the votes. they've done that for time after time after time after time. so therefore, it's hard to buck that tradition. and it's proven, it's been known, generation after generation. once you bust that gap and get enough middle class that will go against the democrats and have enough people behind you beat on the doors and let them
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see that -- and let them see the difference, instead of keep giving them and giving them, and they talk education, ex-, education. >> thanks for the call keith. from portage, indiana,. tanisha is calling. the democrat's line. turn the volume down on your set and go ahead. >> you're on the air. please go ahead. >> i wanted to address why i believe -- two things, why i believe romney did not win, i think that the people have realized that we don't want someone to just blatantly lie to our face. he was called out by obama numerous times, everybody keeps saying that obama attacked him in the beginning with the add, but ypt to call it attacking.
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i want it to be called he made the people aware he let us know who we were dealing with from the gate and he gave us the opportunity to choose what will be best for us. people -- well the republican party needs to stop pointing fingers at obama, making it seem like he put us where we are. we are where we are because we cannot come together as one and help the people of america. >> let me ask you a question, was there in your mind a defining moment in this campaign that ensured the president's re-election? >> yes. i believe the last debate when mitt romney clearly stated that he said, i wanted detroit to go bankrupt -- or i wanted -- i'm sorry, he wanted the state to go bankrupt and the government -- the governor said we were going to back them up or whatever the conversation was and obama clearly told him, no, that's not true. and i think right then, when he couldn't even come back with a
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response and the -- response and the republican party wanted to look at that as if he was being humbled and the american people look at it as, you were blatantly lying. you just lied. it's ok if you want to lie to your people but when it comes to lying to people that need help and appreciate the help and are getting ridiculed because we need the help, we're not going to have it. we're not going to go for that. >> tanisha thankers in call. the president is preponderated to enter momentarily as he enters with vice president joe biden and first lady michelle obama, we'll take you there live. but first a call from the republican line. >> my comment is i am sad, upset, disgusted with the state of ohio and the united states that they would re-elect a president who is in charge of our armed forces, who sat and watched while american lives were taken by terrorists.
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help was an hour away. he could have saved at least two of those men. and he didn't. we have a cowrd who is now leading our cupry. and it really saddens me to think that. >> peggy, why do you think mitt romney wasn't able to get to 270 in terms of electoral votes? why do you think he lost? >> i think it was the 47%, not the comment, but the actual 47%. if you listen to that whole thing the 47%, he said, i can't with worry about them because they've already made up their minds. those people had already known that they were not going to vote for him. they were 47%. they're fourth and fifth generation welfare families who right here in cleveland, in chi hoe ga county, there was a lady yelling about she was on an obama phone. obama gave her a phone because she's getting welfare. is she going to vote for
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anybody but him? no. it's a proven fact that when government gives an gives an gives, it makes the people more reliant on big government. you're going to get into a catch 22 and you'll never get out. >> thanks for the call from cleveland. more results. linda casey keeping track of all of that. >> let's look at the battleground states, how they've worked out for president obama. all of them called by the associated press except for florida. let's look at the numbers. colorado, president obama winning with 51% of the vote. florida, also a very closely watched state. president obama out ahead there , 50% of the vote. next up, iowa. 52% of the vote. nevada one of the few western battleground states. president obama with 53% of the vote. new hampshire on the east coast, president obama, 52% of the vote. north carolina, this one going
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for former governor mitt romney he got 51% of the vote. the president -- to president obama's 48%. ohio. a state that everyone was watching. president obama has prevailed there with 50% of the vote. beating governor romney by just two percentage points. in pell, president, 5 % of the vote. mitt romney's 47%. virginia, president one by one percentage point. in the battle fwround constituent of virginia. and wisconsin. rounding out our list, president obama 52% of the vote, governor romney, 46%. you can see all these numbers as well as look at the balance of power in the house and senate and see other information as well as speeches on our website at c-span.org. >> thank you. share with us your thoughts about this election on our facebook page, send us a tweet, the hash tag is #c-span2012.
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nate silver of "the new york times" predicting a lanslide. tell us what you think about the returns tine, what it means for the president and what's next for the republican party. welcome to the program. >> i think it's just a very dark day. i am shocked and dismayed how this man could have won again. i really feel that the election , so many people are out of work. i am an executive here in this community. who has lost his job. i was able to find a job but there are no jobs. and the woman who called before, the situation with obama, with our troops and with our embassy, i think he handled it improperly. i wouldn't be surprised if
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before he gets ready to give his inaugural speech that there might not be an impeachment trial that starts. i think the country is more divided today than ever before. and i think he was able to win because so many people have moved to the bottom side of the scale. because there is no work in this country. big business won't invest because there's no faith in where the government shedding. >> what do you think the next congress will be like with speaker of the house boehner still in control as the house speaker and on the democratic side, harry reid of nevada still a democratic leader. >> i don't see anything changing, sadly enough. i think we'll have a deadlocked four years. i think the worst thing is we have severe issues coming up, internationally, that i do not
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think this president nor this vice president will be able to handle. and i spent tonight with some gentlemen, one of them being my uncle, these are ethis men that built this country. to see the tears in their eyes as the silent generation, because they said, this is probably the last election they'll have the chance to vote in. they gave so much of their life to build this country and to see this country go down the way it is is just absolutely horrific. it is horrific. we had teenagers here, they have no desire to buy a home. it's not part of their plan. because they've seen their mothers and fathers lose their homes. or own homes that are worth half the value. when you're -- when your young generation doesn't see the american dream as home ownership we've got a problem. i don't know how you fix the generations to come. it's not down this path. it's not town this path.
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>> vince event, thanks for the call from tempe, arizona. on our facebook page, there is this on the election results. frank says, it tells me that people can see through lies and demonization and caitlin has this on our twitter page, saying, i'm really enjoying all the flag dancing on c-span right now. these people are grooving, referring to what's happening in chicago. we're told the president is about eight to 10 minutes away. the vice president already inside mccormick place. there you can see the crowd with american flags as they celebrated -- as they celebrate at obhaw ma -- obama campaign headquarters. four years ago they were outside at grant park, this year they're inside. probably good because temperatures at the freezing level and earlier some drizzle and freezing rain. jane is on the phone from pittsburgh, democrats' line. james. >> i'm happy he run -- he won.
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he won because what professional men like me in their 40's and 50's got out and voted for him four years ago and the same group got out again and that's why he got elected he didn't get elected because there's more people living off the government than there are middle class. you know it's the same find of -- kind of rhetoric, blacks on welfare driving around in cadillacs, we know the rhetoric. you know, it was the end of the world when he got elected four years ago and once again it's the end of the world again. you know. so that's the way i look at it. i looked at, when i was waiting, when i was watching the crowd, waiting for romney to come out and speak, i didn't see one black face. not one chinese face. latino. you know. the republicans are just, i think they're really out of
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touch. >> what does the g.o.p. need to do next? obviously your calling as a democrat who supported the president but as you look ahead to the other party, what are their challenges? >> jeeze. i don't know. you know. what was it, trump just tweeted, back to the drawing board. i really don't know. if they continue with this kind of rhetoric, though, you know, they're -- they're just going to start losing the leches. you know. down the road. because the face of america is changing. and they don't like it. >> thank you very much for the call. on our facebook page, merry has this. it is a sad day in this country. big dollars brought this on and normal folks have to pay the price. i'm sorry for the country but don't think obama could save it if he knew how. share your thoughts, send us a tweet at #c-span2012. we look at the seen in
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mccormick place and listen to aaron in milwaukee. you have a new senator with tammy baldwin winning over your former senator tommy thompson. aaron. >> sorry, sorry. here. >> go ahead. >> yeahing it's -- it's -- i was surprised to see her win, to be honest. >> why is that? >> i had the feel, tommy thompson has been such a name in wisconsin for years. i remember before i knew anything about politicsing tommy thompson was our guy and you always cheered for him. but the campaign adds she's been throwing around the past couple of weeks have been so goofy and ineffective. it was a pleasant surprise. >> elizabeth next from mission, texas. republican line. >> good evening. >> who are your thoughts tonight? >> i am really upset.
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i can't believe that we again got mr. obama into the white house. i am a nurse and it's been hard here in the lower rio grande valley finding a job for a lot of nurses. and i feel like home health has completely -- patients are being not seen and so forth due to a lot of medicare cuts. and you see and yet you go to the groceries and you see ladies with their michael kors purses and pay with a lone star card and it's just, i cannot believe this. we have two girls in college and my husband works for -- it's a light power place and it's, you know, we can't afford it. we can't afford the girls going to college. one of them is almost going to get done but it's horrible. >> if you were to talk to republican party officials moving ahead after this
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election, what would you tell them? >> i would tell them go door to door and talk to everybody. and let them know. that we need to get back to basics. and that means having, you know, start with the fundamentals, how america started. and that is the right way. not, you know, like everybody on welfare. i grew up with no welfare. -- with no welfare. maybe later on in life, food stamps was around but i've seen generations, three to four generations like that other lady said and everyone is on welfare. >> elizabeth, thanks for the call. we'll continue to watch the scene. we expect to hear from the president probably within the next five to seven minutes, if all goes as scheduled. in the meantime, more results with libby. >> let's look at seats in which incouple bens lost. senator scot brown defeated by elizabeth warren, the senator-elect. the democrat garnering 54% of
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the vote. turning to house races. congressman joe walsh the republican, has been defeated by tamme duckworth, a democrat, in illinois' eighth district. in illinois, the 11th district, representative judy biggert defeated by bill foster, a democrat. we've gotten 58% of the vote. and in maryland, representative roscoe bartlett, the republican, losing his seat to john delaney a democrat. his district was redrawn to include some democratic suburbs in the washington area. making that a harder seat for him to keep. and new hampshire's second. conman charlie bass, a republican, losing to ann custer, the democratic challenger. also north carolina, the eighth district, representative larry kistle, democrat, 46% of the vote, losing his seat to richard hudson, the republican, 54% of the vote. you can find all this information and race results at
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our website, c-span.org. >> robbie is joining us from houston, texas, the democrats' line. good evening. >> good evening, how are you? >> fine, thank you. your reaction to the results tonight, the president re-elected. >> i'm actually very, very happy he won. i believe the republicans need to wake up and stop being obstructionist. the first thing that came out of mitch mcconnel's mouth when president obama was elected the first time was we will do everything to make him a one-term president. when the new election cycle comes in, people will realize that the the deadlocks, we can
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vote out the obstructionist. people are talking about 47% on weafl. come to think of it, the kind of programs we have, it's what separates a developed country from nondeveloped countries. it's programs that actually help people out and also prevent anarchy. i mean, i'm from africa. i've seen people who don't have anything and when government is not going to help them. this creates anarchy ant government programs, that kind of stuff, actually help out. i don't really want people to develop government far long time. i've made strides from welfare now working and i've been in a high percentage of people going
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this route. >> your final thought? >> i think the president is going to do great. thing the republicans should come together and work with the democrats and then we'll have a better nation. >> thanks for the call. in the senate, 33 seats up in this campaign. 23 incumbents. 10 open seats. if you go to our website at c-span.org you'll be able to check out ebalance of pour. the democrats with the majority. the democrats with 51%. in the house, the democrats with 213 -- the republicans with 213 seats, the democrats with 159, the republicans maintain control. in the electoral college votes, the president at 303 electoral college votes while romney has 203. the popular volt is tied, but
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it's the electoral ledge that count theansd president has that lead. we'll hear if the president shortly. next is sharon joining us from seattle, washington. republican line. good evening, sharon. >> hi. i saw on my tv where it said ohio was projected and i understand that -- the electoral vote. here in washington state, our governor, the race, they said there's still two days to where they will be counting the mail-in ballots and i'm just, you know, i -- i'm very -- i really -- very hopeful for mitt romney. i didn't want to see president obama win. i think there's runaway costs that people are not seeing. >> but now that he has won, do you think the politics in washington will change between
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the democratic president, a republican house, and the democratic senate? >> i think that truth will come out. we still have people that want to see obamacare overturned. i was at a drugstore recently that i go to a couple of times a week and an employee told me theying to be out perfectly good cash registers and replaced them at $4,000 per cash register because there was a microcomputer to email the purchases from the pharmacy to someplace. and i think there's unnecessary spending and once people realize that, it's starting to come to light, things will change. for the republicans. >> sharon, thankers in call. the president has arrived at mccormick place. that means he'll be coming to the stage momentarily as the
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crowd continues to get excited as they welcome the president for a second four-year term. joining previous presidents bill clinton and george w. bush who were re-elected of course along with ronald reagan back in 1980 and the popular vote showing that the president holding on to a lead and a more substantial lead with the electoral college vote. all the results on our website at c-span.org including, if you're interested, in individual house and senate races. john from clarksdale, mississippi, indent line, good evening. >> hey. i've listened to a lot of people tonight. everybody is kind of, you know, cutting the president down for the people being on s.s.i., social security and all that. i broke my back 10 years ago, i'm on disability and my daughter, my wife, depend on that. i would give up everything i got right now if i could get a
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job but it's not the president, it's the insurance companies that these companies have that will not hire me because i'm too high of a risk. but when i go down the street and people that know me, the slack that i get, it's really uncalled for. if people would just start i don't know if the right -- what the right word would be but if people would just start going and making an effort to make the world better instead of trying to cut it down all the time we might get somewhere. i mean, it's not my fault that i got hit and broke my back. >> ok. john thanks for the call. on our facebook page, tim has this point. i'm proud of the country and the people that have seen past the rhetoric and voted for the correct path. i spoth our president and give kudos to governor romney for showing class in his concession salespeople. -- concession speech.
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this from george baxter. look at the difference in the two audiences. the president's cloud looks more like the landscape of america. america is changing and the republican party refuses to change with it. our next caller is a republican. lewis is on the phone from cleveland, ohio. good evening. you with us? >> thank you. i appreciate the ability to speak. i have to admit that i'm actually more of a libertarian but we don't get a lot of chances and in this particular race it falls to the republican party. mitt romney was speaking a lot about giving the state more control of things so that they have the surgical accuracy for the people who actually need the help rather than a broad spectrum approach which is typically a democratic platform. they feel that $1 to every citizen is is the way to solve it and you've got this lump sum of money that's burned and $1
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doesn't change my life or the person next to me. mitt romney was speaking from the standpoint of let's give that lump sum to this particular group of people that actually need it. and granted, maybe with a little -- maybe it wasn't good for him to say the middle class was getting squeezed, he was just trying to get votes with that statement but one thing that gets overlooked, when we start to look at class and romney gets scoffed out because he's wealthy and it's certain that when you start to hit six and -- seven and eight figures and higher you think it's an atrocity to pay any taxes. >> the president is about to speak. for your country and the party what's next? >> it's a good thing obama has won from the standpoint of those who didn't vote for him because now they have to emwrace their choice, good or
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bad. and so there's no more blaming republicans and how the feas of the times are changing with their party and they're talking about the crowd and the mixture of demographics. and that's something you want to pay attention to, it's not what's important right now. >> ok. lewis thanks for the call. we're going to move on, hear a few more calls before we hear from the president. joe is on the line. indianapolis, indiana. good evening. independent line. >> hello, can you hear me? >> sure can. go ahead. >> i didn't vote for either candidate this time around. i'll explain why. for the last probably 20 to 30 years we've seen the outsourcing of american jobs overseas. and neither one of these candidates directly addressed that matter. and i just heard a caller come on who talked about how some of the older individuals in his life had built this country. well the same people that started a lot of these large corporations are the same people that are now outsourcing
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manufacturing jobs overseas. and the back bone for any gross domestic product is what you can build and manufacture in a country. and all the plastics, all the metal, they're being made in other countries and it's being shipped here. we're becoming a country of assembly and not manufacturing. and that's where all the jobs have gone. they're talking about -- romney was talking about giving tax breaks to corporations. obama is talking about evolving to become a technology-based country instead of manufacturing. neither of these is solutions. the important election will be in the next four years but what i think needs to happen is some of these corporations who are ordering products from china and taiwan and other countries need to start taking responsibility for what they're doing. and no tax break that you can give to a corporation is going to make up for $10,000 a day difference between a -- 100 workers in the united states as opposed to 00 chinese workers. >> thangers in call and comment.
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moses on our twitter page. listening to the callers on c-span can be eye opening. have faith, have hope, we must all be part of moving forward. next caller, ashley from wilmington, north carolina, a democrat. good evening, ashley. ? hi, how are you doing tonight? >> i'm fine. did you vote today? >> i did. >> what was turnout like in wilmington? >> it was long lines, very, very long lines. people were there all day. we had that new early voting option that i definitely made sure i did not take advantage of. i wanted to come out with the turnout like everybody else on election day and make sure i was part of all the excitement. i wanted to do it day of. >> yet the president did not win north carolina. >> i know. and it's really sad but it's good in a way because i feel like the states that he didn't get to take over and you know, get the high votes for, i feel like now he has a chance to come in, four more years and prove what he's all about.
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i feel like the things our president want to do is definitely going to take eight years. i feel like if we could, you know, we could stand behind him and wait just another four years and see what he does, i feel like the president might be the face of the campaigning. the president might be the face of the country. but congress has to be behind the president for things to work. if congress can get behind our president, i feel like we can take it there with obama. i feel like we can go places with obama. but it's going to take time. starting someone from scratch is not going to help us in the economic cry sess we're in. we need to leave someone in office that had the right ability to move forward. and i feel like we can do that with obama. i definitely do. >> thanks for ecall. we take you to mckarmic place as the crowd continues to get excited. we're told the president will be there momentarily within the next minute or so. live coverage here on c-span.
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♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and the first family. [cheers and applause]
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♪ ♪ here i am baby signed sealed delivered
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i'm yours ♪ [applause]
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[applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you so much. tonight more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own
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destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward. [applause] it moves forward because of you. it moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and oppression. the spirit that lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope. the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an american family and we rise or fall together as one nation. tonight, in this election, you, the american people, reminded
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us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the united states of america, the best is yet to come. [applause] i want to thank every american who participated in this election. [applause] whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time. by the way, we have to fix that. whether you pounded the
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pavement or picked up the phone. whether you held an obama sign or a romney sign you made your voice heard. and you made a difference. i just spoke with governor romney and i congratulated him and paul ryan on a hard-fought campaign. [applause] we may have battled fiercely but it's only because we love this country deeply. and we care so strongly about its future, from george to he foreto their son mitt, the romney family has chosen to give back to america through public service. that's a legacy we honor and applaud tonight.
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in the weeks ahead, i look forward to sit do you think with governor romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward. i want to thank my fend and partner of the last four years, america's happy warrior, the best vice president anybody could ever hope for, joe biden. [applause] and i wouldn't be the man i am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago. let me say this publicly, michelle, i have never loved
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you more. i have never been prouder to watch the rest of america fall in love with you too, as our nation's first lady. [applause] sasha and malia, before our very eyes, you're growing up to become two strong, smart, beautiful young women, just like your mom. [applause] and i'm so proud of you guys. but i will say that for now one dog is probably enough. to the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics -- chaustchaust -- [cheers and applause]
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the best. the best ever. some of you were new this time around and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning. but all of you are family. no matter what you do or where you go from here. you will carry the memory of the history we made together. and you'll have the lifelong preeshyakes of a grateful president. thank you for believing all the way. through every hill, through every valley. you lifted me up the whole way. and i will always be grateful.
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and all the incredible work you put in. i know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly. and that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics who tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos. or the do main of special interests. but if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turn out at rallies and crowded along the rope line in a high school gym or saw folks working late at a campaign office and -- in some tiny county far away from home, you'll discover something else. you'll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organizer who is working his way through college and wants to make sure every child has that same opportunity.
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you'll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer going door to door because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift. you'll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home. that's why we do this. that's what politics can be. that's why elections matter.
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it's not small. it's big. it's important. democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy an messy and complicated. we have our own opinions. each of us has deeply held beliefs. when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. that won't change after tonight. and it shouldn't. these arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. we can never forget that as we speak people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter. the chance to cast their ballots like we did today. [applause]
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but despite all our differences , most of us share certain hopes for america's future. we want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers. a country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow. we want our children to live in an america that isn't burdened by debt. that isn't weakened by inequality. that isn't threatened by the du destructive power of a warming planet. we want to pass on a country that's safe and respected and admired around the world. a nation that's defended by the
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strongest military on earth and the best troops this world has ever known. [applause] but also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being. we believe in a generous america. in a compassionate america. in a tolerant america. open to the dreams of an immigrant's daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag. to the young boy on the south side of chicago who sees the light beyond the nearest street corner. to the furniture worker's child in north carolina who wants to
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become a doctor or a scientist. an engineer or an entrepreneur. a diplomat or even a president. that's the future we hope for. that's the vision we share. that's where we need to go. forward. that's where we need to go. now we will disagree. sometimes fiercely. about how to get there. as it has for more than two century, progress will come in fits and starts. it's not always a straight line. it's not always a smooth path. by itself, the recognition that -- recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end the grid lock or solve all our problems. or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus. and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward.
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but that common bond is where we must begin. our economy is recovering. a decade of war is ending. a long campaign is now over. [applause] and when i earned your -- and whether i earned your vote or not, i have listened to you. i have learned from you. and you've made me a better president. and with your stories and your struggles, i return to the white house more determined an more inspired than ever about the work left to do for the future ahead of us. [applause] tonight you voted for action.
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not politics as usual. you elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. and in the coming weeks and months, i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties. to meet the challenges we can only solve together. reducing our deficit. reforming our tax code. fixing our immigration system. freeing ourselves from foreign oil. we've got more work to do. but that doesn't mean your work is done. the role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote. america has never been about what can be done for us. it's about what can be done by us, together. doing the hard, frustrating,
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necessary work of self-government. that's the principle we were founded on. this country has more wealth than any nation. but that's not what makes us rich. we have the most powerful military in history but that's not what makes us strong. our university, our culture, are the envy of the world. but that's not what keeps the worldcoming to our shores. what makes america exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. the belief that our destiny is shared that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations. it is the freedom which so many americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights and among those are love and charity and duty and
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patriotism. that's what makes america great. i am hopeful tonight because i've seen the spirit of work in america. i've seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors. and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friend lose a job. i've seen it in soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb. and in those seals who charged up the stairs in the darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back. i see it on the shores of new jersey and new york.
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where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm. and i saw it just the other tai. -- other day. in ohio. where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything. had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care -- [cheers and applause] i had to not just talk to the father but meet this incredible
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daughter of his. when he spoke to the crowd, listening to that father's story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes. because we knew that little girl could be our own. and i know that every american wants her future to be just as bright. that's who we are. that's the country i'm so proud to lead as your president. and tonight, despite all the hardship we have been through, despite all the frustrations of washington, i've never been more hopeful about our future. i have never been more hopeful about america. and i ask you to sustain that hope. i'm not talking about blind
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optimism. the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. i'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows taos just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. i have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary that something better awaits us so long as we have courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. america, i believe we can build on the progress we have made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. i believe we can keep the promise of our founders. the idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come
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from or what you look like. or where you -- or who you love. it opportunity matter if your black or white or native american or hispanic or old or young or able, disabled, gay or straight. you can make it here in america if you're willing to work hard. i believe we can seize this future together. because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we were made -- we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states, we are and forever will be the united states of america and together, we will continue our journey forward and remind the world why it is we live in the
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greatest nation on earth. thank you, america. god bless you. god bless these united states. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause]

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